Tom Whipple of Falls Church News-Press on Great Transition

Former senior analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Tom Whipple is a writer/editor on energy, Peak Oil, and LENR.

This is a re-post of Tom Whipple’s The Great Transition: Progress on New Sources of Energy published in Falls Church News-Press at https://fcnp.com/2018/12/20/great-transition-progress-new-sources-energy/.

The Great Transition: Progress on New Sources of Energy

by Tom Whipple

Unless humanity replaces fossil fuels in the next couple of decades, it is almost certain that the latter part of the 21st century and beyond is going to be a very unpleasant era in which to live. For the past 200 years, much of the world has prospered greatly from fossil fuels. Most of us have become so accustomed to the benefits of fossil fuels that few are anxious to give up the lifestyles that this energy has provided despite the dire implications for future generations.

After three decades of grappling with climate change, it is becoming apparent that the only solution to slowing and reversing its effects is to develop new sources of energy that are so much cheaper than our fossil fuels and our current alternatives that a rapid transition to non-polluting energy will happen quickly and without too much economic damage. Although considerable progress has been made in improving and reducing the cost of our current, non-carbon emitting energy sources, for a variety of reasons not enough progress is being made in substituting these alternative energy sources to stop catastrophic changes in our climate.

At present, there seem to be only two radically new sources of energy under development that offer hope of replacing fossil fuels soon. As I have discussed several times before in this paper, there are two technologies — Low Energy Nuclear Reactions LENR and hydrogen/hydrino reaction — under development that appear to be nearing commercialization. Both of these technologies have been scientifically controversial for many years, but as their developers make progress, skepticism among those who have insight into the progress to these technologies is starting to wane.

The most prominent developer of the LENR technology, Andrea Rossi, said recently that he is installing a LENR heating system in a factory and that the first phase of this system has been in operation since mid-November. Rossi, however, releases information about his technology in such small bits and pieces that it is difficult to evaluate his technology or its prospects.

In contrast to the secretive Rossi, Randell Mills of Brilliant Light Power is an open book. For years, Mills has posted on his website periodic briefings outlining his progress and plans for the future. In recent years he has been issuing quarterly progress reports which are supplemented by the release of annotated video clips showing steadily improving prototypes of his devices being tested. In contrast to Rossi, some 95 percent of Mills’ technology and progress is available to anyone interested on the Brilliant Light Power website.

Mills has been working on his technology for over 25 years, and his laboratory is adequately financed by investors who believe he is developing a revolutionary technology. Mills produces energy by converting hydrogen atoms into a hitherto unknown form of hydrogen, which he calls hydrinos, which results in the release of unprecedented amounts of energy. His reaction has been working for several years and seems to be well verified by outside scientists. However, a reaction on a laboratory bench is not the same as a device that can replace all types of fossil fuels worldwide. There is still a lot of engineering to do before a plasma glowing on a laboratory bench is ready for mass production.

It has been two years since Mills last demonstrated his hydrogen-to-hydrino reaction and laid out a plan to build and market an energy producing device he calls a SunCell. During this period there have been important changes in Mills’ concept of how a commercial device that will reliably produce heat and electricity will work. Plans to release a device that would convert the energy being produced by a high-temperature plasma into electricity by using photoelectric cells has been put aside in favor of more promising techniques. Mills is now planning to develop two devices, one to produce heat and the other to produce electricity, using a highly efficient technique known as magnetohydrodynamics (MHD).

Before a commercial energy producing device can be built, Mills first has had to develop what he calls an “automated cell” or subsystem in which the energy-producing reaction can take place under computer control. In the early prototypes, Mills’ reaction was started and maintained manually, making it unsuitable for a commercial product. Judging from the videos showing various configurations of the SunCell that have been tested and the quarterly reports that have been released, he seems to be making progress. Successful development of several subsystems for the automated cell has been announced, and the videos show the reaction can now take place inside various types of enclosed spheres.

The two commercial products under development that will incorporate the automated cell are the “Thermal SunCell” which is to deliver 500kW for boilers, hot air or hot water thermal systems. As this device is far less complex than the “Electric SunCell,” it should reach the market first and demonstrate the potential of the technology. Brilliant Light Power plans to market this device initially to industrial firms which use heat in their processes. Although Mills says the SunCell theoretically can be scaled to produce anywhere from 10 kilowatts to 10 megawatts, the first device which incorporates an MHD subsystem is being designed to produce 150kW. By using MHD rather than photovoltaics to produce the electricity, Brilliant Light has lengthened the development time but, in the end, may have a better and far cheaper device.

With the changes taking place in plans for a commercial system, the path to non-polluting cheap energy from the SunCell technology has been lengthened, and BLP is no longer making forecasts of how long it will be before even a commercial-ready prototype can be developed. There was one clue in a recent BLP video of “Shakedown testing of our inverted-pedestal-electrode reactor before our planned demonstration for DOD scientists.” This could be a very significant development for if BLP can convince DOD scientists that they are looking at the energy source of the future, the technology could be in production a lot faster. It was scientists from DoD’s Advanced Research Projects Agency that was instrumental in developing the Internet — and look how that turned out! There may be some hope for the 22nd century yet if Rossi’s or Mills’ devices get into production in time.

From The Great Transition: Progress on New Sources of Energy by Tom Whipple

David French leaves legacy of public service to breakthrough energy

Patent lawyer and Cold Fusion Now! contributor David J. French passed away quietly in his sleep the night of Sunday Dec 2.

He spent his career at private law firms and also worked with the Canadian government on law reform and international patent issues before retiring to his own law firm Second Counsel in Ottawa, Canada.

He began consulting with scientists in the CMNS field offering patent advice and helping to secure their intellectual property, sharing much of his expertise knowledge pro bono.

David in blue shirt on sailboat with Bernie Sanders! (not shown) August 2011

David J. French wrote his first article for Cold Fusion Now! in August 2011 – Review of Cold Fusion Patents – and continued to write through May 2016, doing an analysis of Andrea Rossi’s patent filings.

See the whole set of David J. French articles for Cold Fusion Now! here: https://coldfusionnow.org/patents/

He also published in the Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science and began speaking publicly at conferences on the issues of patents and cold fusion.

In 2012, he spoke at ICCF-17 on Patents and Cold Fusion, published in the Proceedings [JCMNS V13 .pdf].

In 2013, he presented a poster at ICCF-18 Patenting Cold Fusion Inventions before the US Patent & Trademark Office which this paper is based on.

David French examines model airplane December 2009

At the CF/LANR Colloquium at MIT, David J. French spoke March 22 2014 on The role of the Patent Attorney in patenting Cold Fusion inventions seen here on Youtube.

In June 2017, he spoke at the 12th International Workshop on Anomalies in Hydrogen Loaded Metals and published Key Principles for Patenting in the Land of LENR in the Proceedings [JCMNS Vol26 .pdf].

Video of the talk was captured by Société Française de la Science Nucléaire dans la Matière Condensée:

Although he attended ICCF-21 this past June 2018, he did not present formally, but spent hours sharing patent advice with the scientists there. High drama ensued when, on the day of the outing, the tour bus full of scientists forgot David at a Rocky Mountain Park visitor center. He notoriously decided to hitchhike home from 7800 feet (~ 2400 m), getting multiple rides from locals off the mountain. Nuclear scientists searched the upper peak, looking for the missing patent lawyer until learning he was napping back at campus!

Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, US.

David French showed generosity and kindness to the CMNS community with his open and steady demeanor. Like his fellow Canadian Marshall McLuhan, David J. French embodied the even-tempered balance of issues, always willing to listen, rejecting emotional judgements in favor of a civil discourse that pursues a common understanding.

His last update for Cold Fusion Now! was in April 2018 when he joined me on the podcast. Personally, David was a voice of inspiration, creativity, and positivity. I hope that some of his creative writings see the light of day – he dabbled in fiction and screenplays, as well as history.

His many friends in the CMNS community will surely miss his understanding and contribution of law, science, and technology, and this friend will too.

Tadahiko Mizuno rewards CMNS community with test reactor

Nuclear chemist and veteran LENR researcher Dr. Tadahiko Mizuno is now in the recovery phase after an earthquake damaged sensitive equipment in his laboratory in Hokkaido, and the CMNS community is assisting in the repair and replacement of lab apparatus that will allow him to continue his successful excess heat research.

“I have experienced earthquakes many times before. Each one was terrible, but this time it was a bit different,” said Dr. Mizuno of the shaking.

“The fact that the laboratory was hurt by the unexpected, the fact that the building was broken – and the biggest thing is that electricity and water stopped for a few days. Earthquakes up to that point did not have that kind of thing, rather it was very localized. This time, the lab would clearly be effected.”

Like many scientists in Japan, Dr. Mizuno had prepared for a disaster like this. He says,

“Naturally, this kind of situation was contemplated. A few years ago Sapporo produced a scenario of a devastating earthquake, with almost all the buildings collapsed. There was no electricity, no water, no food- it was a cold winter game-plan. It was so realistic, it was a revelation to seriously prepare for disaster prevention.”

“We fixed everything that we could install, such as fixing shelves, setting fire extinguishers, emergency food, water, power generation radio. Of course I persuaded others to proceed with preparation. I was warning everyone!”

“A few days before, a metallic ringing continued in my ears, and an earthquake came in the middle of the night when it stopped. No matter how much preparation it was, the damage was something I could not escape.”

The quake on 3/11/11 which caused the ensuing tsunami and Fukushima disaster was foremost in his mind.

“I also had the same experience on March 11, 2011. At that time I took a day off and was vegetating in front of the TV. A loud audible alarm sounded from the TV and mobile phone, and soon a big earthquake swing came. I think everyone is aware of the situation of the subsequent disasters.”

“At that time, I was preparing CF experiments to control the heat. It seems that it was telling me to hurry again this time. I feel such a presence of God.”

Glow discharge makes significant excess power

Dr. Mizuno has been investigating both LENR excess heat and transmutations since 1989. He has written and edited several books, among them, Nuclear Transmutation: The Reality of Cold Fusion published in 1998, detailing the massive excess heat he witnessed in his earliest experiments, and the slow realization over years that there were also transmutations occurring, too.

Working as Hydrogen Engineering Application & Development HEAD, Dr. Mizuno has been part of the extraordinary collaboration between industry and academia in Japan, recently working with Clean Planet, Inc and the Condensed Matter Nuclear Science CMNS division at the Research Center for Electron Photon Science ELPH at Tohoku University.

Hideki Yoshino, the founder and CEO of Clean Planet and an organizer of collaborative LENR research, reported on Mizuno’s work at the CF/LANR Colloquium at MIT in 2014.

In that presentation, Yoshino described results from 73 tests of Mizuno’s gas discharge system where a treated nickel mesh cathode reacted with D2 gas at temperatures above 200 degrees C and pressures of 100-300 pascals using a palladium rod wrapped in palladium wire as an anode.

ICCF-21 Slide showing glow discharge reactor schematics.

In one test run, a total input power of 80 Watts produced 78 Watts excess thermal power out. Continuing for 35 days before it was turned off, the total excess energy produced was 108 MegaJoules.

The only problem? Reactions would not start sometimes until one, two, even three years later! A new method of preparing the electrodes would have to be found in order to create a reaction more quickly, and explore the parameter space of the system.

From Observation of Excess Heat by Activated Metal and Deuterium Gas by T. Mizuno JCMNS V25
Previously, the nickel mesh and palladium were carefully cleaned and then put to glow discharge, which Mizuno says creates the required nano-particles in the process. In 2017, understanding that the nickel mesh is where the reaction is located, he decided to try applying palladium directly to the nickel beforehand.

In the paper Observation of Excess Heat by Activated Metal and Deuterium Gas published in JCMNS V25 [.pdf], Mizuno writes,

“With unprocessed nickel, it is impossible to generate excess heat at all. However, if the surface is covered with particles and further Pd is present on the surface, excess heat is easily generated. The smaller the particles are, and the more Pd is uniformly present, the more the excess heat is generated.”

A new method treats the nickel by physically rubbing the palladium rod on the mesh before glow discharge begins. A second new method used electroless plating to plate palladium on the nickel mesh.

Mizuno excess power experiment is reproduced

At the 21st International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science ICCF-21 held June 2018, Jed Rothwell presented some of the results of experiments using the new methods of electrode preparation.

See the ICCF-21 video presentation on Tadahiko Mizuno’s work here. Download the presentation .pdf file here.

Jed Rothwell runs the LENR science paper archive http://lenr-canr.org/ and is the author of Cold Fusion and the Future [.pdf]. He has translated many of Dr. Mizuno’s papers and books from Japanese into English. Mizuno writes:

“Jed has been involved in our research of CF work for 25 years, from 1993 to 2018. He analyzed our testing methods, our adiabatic thermal measurement method, and our air cooling method test results. He found problems and contributed to many improvements of the test method. Jed himself wrote the manuscript paper and based on these many contributions, Jed is the co-author of that paper.”

He added,

“He has also struggled to collect research funds for us. Without this funding, our CF work may have been impossible.”

The air-flow calorimetry system used by Tadahiko Mizuno from the ICCF-21 presentation (2018).

In the ICCF-21 presentation, Rothwell revealed that the new methods of electrode preparation have successfully decreased the time to reaction to about a week or two, but sadly, the change in materials preparation has reduced power output to only 5-20% of previous values, now measuring about 20-40 Watts excess thermal.

For 38 active tests, 19 using each of the two new methods, all tests but five produced about 5% excess power, with five of those 38 tests producing 15% or more excess thermal power.

There have been valid concerns with his data, and Dr. Mizuno has been responsive. For instance, he showed that the resistance heater is not part of the excess by performing glow discharge with an ordinary nickel mesh (without treatment) and producing only the amount of heat as resistance heating.

It seems addressing the objections has only strengthened the conclusions, as they should.

In fact, a team of scientists Takehiko Itoh, Yasuhiro Iwamura, Jirohta Kasagi from ELPH at Tohoku University and Hiroki Shishido from the Quantum Science and Energy Engineering Department also at Tohoku University, were able to successfully reproduce excess heat using a system almost identical to Mizuno’s, though with less heat output, only generating about 7 Watts thermal. [See Anomalous Excess Heat Generated by the Interaction between Nano-structured Pd/Ni Surface and D2 Gas in JCMNS V24 [.pdf].]

Extrapolating to 700 degrees C should produce 1 kiloWatt. From ICCF-21 presentation file.

Mizuno believes that extrapolating data relating temperature and excess power (here showing the earlier high-output data) to 700 degrees C could produce 1 kiloWatt of excess thermal power, a number Jed Rothwell notes is “much better energy density and Carnot efficiency than a fission reactor core.”

Community generosity is rewarded with test reactor

When the 6.7 earthquake hit Hokkaido on September 6, 2018, damage to the sensitive lab equipment was enough to spell an end to research. At 73 years young, it’s not easy to start over again. Describing the damage to the lab, Dr. Mizuno was optimistic about repairs saying,

“Although the shelf did not collapse, inside the lab was knocked-about. The SEM, the fluorescent X-ray equipment, and the experimental equipment which had just been installed, moved around as much as 10 cm, and the connections and vacuum were destroyed.”

“Fortunately, there is a lot of experience around able to repair the equipment, and we can fix some too, if we can make the time.

The CMNS community came together to help. Physicist and LENR scientist Dr. Dennis Cravens started a gofundme fundraiser to help with costs:

“Do unto others. If Tadahiko is correct, it is a promising path that he should continue to follow. He had been working alone without encouragement for years – and there were many years early on with no results. I know how that must feel- being alone and unappreciated. I have had many years like that.”

“We raised about $8,500 dollars. The amount sent was lightly adjusted by Go Fund Me fees and currency exchange costs getting it here to there. I should also say a few people wired money directly.”

That generosity will stretch a long way to fix the equipment, and spirits. Upon hearing of the campaign, Mizuno was overcome:

“I am very thankful to everyone for helping me. I thought for a long time that I was studying CF work all alone. I thought it was checkmate due to the earthquake damage on 6th September. I was pessimistic that I could not repair the equipment, and all was over. However, that was not so. Many friends have stepped up and supported my CF research. I was so happy, tears came to my eyes. This was the first time I have felt this way during the more than 70 years I have been alive. I am very happy that people were so kind, and am happy thinking about it. I am very grateful to everyone. I will never forget the efforts of my friends.”

Dr. Mizuno wanted to do something special and so he offered up one of his reactors to a researcher in the community to test.

Small thank-you reactor by Mizuno from Lenr-forum.

“The money you raised will be used to repair my equipment, especially the scanning electron microscope, and, part of the money will be used for the production cost of a small reactor that I am sending to another lab that has agreed to test it. I think it will produce excess heat. And I think that other researchers in the world will confirm and announce excess heat generation by these methods. Thank you again.”

Sindre Zeiner-Gundersen is Director of Operations of Norrønt AS, a company providing engineering project management and patent development. He is also a PhD candidate in Physics who has been researching ultra-dense hydrogen and Rydberg matter with PhD supervisor Svein Olafsson in Iceland and Norway’s Professor Svein Holmlid.

Zeiner-Gundersen, based in the Oslo-area of Norway, has just received the reactor from Mizuno.

“I’m guessing I was one of the first to contact Mizuno after his lab went down in the earthquake, to continue and verify his important work, and I’m also working in a well equipped lab as well. Opening the shipping box was like Christmas. All the excitement in the world.”

“I believe its not the glow discharge reactor but filled with ZrPd powder that will activate when the temperature reaches a critical point after being loaded with deuterium. I think this is the same design that yielded 12% excess heat that Jed presented at ICCF21.”

“I’m still waiting for further operating instructions before testing and I’m setting up flow calorimetry, and programming Labview data acquisition to measure everything from: voltage, current, 8 temp sensors, pressure, charged particles, alfa, beta, gamma and neutrons.”

The CMNS community, long isolated from mainstream support, knows that working together is the path to success. Sindre Zeiner-Gundersen maintains

“… the most valuable work we as researchers can do is to collaborate, share data, replicate and verify the work preformed by the best researchers in this field.”

After 30-years of breakthrough research, Tadahiko Mizuno is just getting started. He’s organizing the lab again for a new round of experiments and consulting on a reproduction half-way around the world. When asked if he will be able to build upon such spectacular results he says:

“It is all about making an excess-heat generation CF device. There is no reason not to be able to do it. This is my job.”

Akito Takahashi reports on the MHE: bigger composite samples and bigger heat

In the global field of LENR, few groups match the productivity of Japanese researchers. With a longtime history of collaboration between academia and industry, the rich and wide-ranging scientific results have enabled groups on the island to develop long-term data on systems, successfully reproduce key experiments, and grow a diverse and comprehensive team of researchers training young scientists.

Now, a collection of stunning results is reported from a two-year collaborative project focused on generating excess heat with the Metal Hydrogen Energy MHE reactor within a budget of 1 million dollars.

The six institutions of Kyushu University, Tohoku University, Nagoya University, Kobe University, the Nissan Motors Co. and Technova Inc, a division of Toyota, worked together from design to analysis, each contributing their specialty. The goal was to verify the existence of the Anomalous Heat Effect AHE in nano-metal and hydrogen gas interactions, and seek to control the effect.

The first MHE arose in 2012 at Kobe University, and now, there’s an additional reactor at Tohoku University, one with a new calorimetry design for comparative results.

A total of 16 collaborative tests have generated an average of 7-8 Watts excess thermal power, but that bumps up to 20 Watts excess on some sample runs, with no appreciable radiation from gammas or neutrons above background levels detected.

The MHE reactor at Tohoku University

According to the team, the regular success in generating heat is due to the composite materials specially developed to host the reaction, which researchers there say is required to initiate a reaction in their system. Nano-powder mixes 2-10 nanometers wide of palladium, nickel, and zirconium, and copper, nickel and zirconium, have provided excess heat greater than single palladium or nickel metal reactors.

The MHE group is also using larger amounts of host material. 200-gram samples are divided into two 100-gram samples, and sent to different labs. When tested under the same conditions, similar heat profiles are observed, producing 2-8 Watts for a week. That wouldn’t be news in any other field, but in LENR/cold fusion, this is a huge step towards nailing down this reaction.

It’s expensive, but more host material makes more heat

One Cu-Ni-Zir sample produced an anomalous heat burst peaking at 110 Watts thermal, then, dropping down to 2 Watts sustained for a day. The total energy produced by the burst: 300 kiloJoules.

The largest excess heat data was generated in the 14th collaborative experiment when a 124-gram palladium-nickel-zirconium sample generated 10-20 Watts thermal power for a month.

Dr. Akito Takahashi is one of the members on this team that has been working on the problem of cold fusion reproducibility since the early days. A nuclear engineer and senior advisor in the Thermal Energy and Technology group with Technova, he is one of the stars of a crowded Japanese field teeming with talent, and whose range of research have helped transform investigations into the Anomalous Heat Effect into a fast evolving field of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science, where the parade of nuclear effects keep on surprising scientists.

He spoke at the recent ICCF-21 conference and gave an update on results from the 2-year collaborative project that he led, and what’s next for the perrenial MHE heat machine. You can watch his presentation on Youtube here and download the ICCF-21 presentation file here.

Cold Fusion Now! asked Dr. Akito Takahashi about his career in cold fusion, the MHE project, and the theoretical model he developed to try to explain and give direction to research.


RUBY Dr. Takahashi, you are an original cold fusion scientist. Can you tell us what prompted you to first start researching cold fusion, and how long did it take for you to get results?

AT In March-May 1989 after the F-P big claim of cold fusion, I was skeptical. However, the Tienanmen Crisis in Beijing China gave me a chance to get involved in cold fusion research. At that time I was busily involved in the DT fusion blanket neutronics project the US, Japan and China were collaborating on. Suddenly, the project was suspended due to the Tienanmen Crisis and I had some free time.

My expertise was in neutron physics experiment since 1965. If cold fusion is real, the F-P heavy water electrolysis should emit 2.45 MeV neutrons by d-d fusion as Steve Jones of BYU claimed. This was the common sense effect that mainstream nuclear physics people (I was one of them) would look for.

Curiosity moved me to try neutron detection with spectroscopy, which I was very familiar with, by heavy water electrolysis with palladium cathode. After several weeks in trial, I could see weak component of 2.45 MeV d-d fusion neutrons. However, the observed neutron level was very weak. If the F-P claim of anomalous thermal power (heat) in a few watts level was by cold d-d fusion reactions, ca. ten-to-the 12th order 10^12 neutrons per watt were lethal, but my observed neutron level was very very weak at ten-to-the MINUS 13th order 10^-13 level of required d-d fusion reactions. It was so curious to me. Something new and nuclear-like should have happened.

In a few weeks, I proposed a model and send a short note to journal (JNST: Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology). The proposed model is the multi-body deuteron fusion theory in deuterium-absorbed metal. After about 25 years elaboration, the theory has been established as CCF (condensed cluster fusion) theory. The TSC (tetrahedral symmetric condensation) theory is the key term of theory.

Along with theoretical works, I have done many experiments on anomalous heat effect and nuclear products detection by using designed CF experimental devices for the last 30 years, under the view of CCF model guide line. Curiosity is what drives me.

Recently, I have become aware of repeated observations with convincing experimental results by the deuterium or light-hydrogen gas charging method using new concept nano-composite metal powders, which are consistent with theoretical mechanisms of CCF theory in combination of dynamic interactions of nuclear, molecular, surface-catalytic and metal solid state physics. By doing so, it has past the 30-years-mark of continued work.

RUBY You and the team of collaborators working with you, are continuing to reach for bigger results with the Metal Hydrogen Energy system, and you are getting it! What is so special about the materials you are now using?

AT Our knowledge now is: Pure palladium and nickel (even nano-powders) do not work to produce sustaining large (namely, several tens watts, currently) excess heat at practically useable elevated temperatures as 300-400 degree C. We need bi-metallic nano-composite (or nano-islands) structures in ceramics supporter flakes. Pd1Ni7/zirconia and Cu1Ni7/zirconia are typical hopeful powder samples.

We have started with 50-100g powder samples in MHE reaction chamber, and observed several-weeks sustaining anomalous heat of ca. 10 watts thermal power level, by deuterium or H-charging. Integrated excess heat in a month run reached typically 300 MJ per mol-D. So, produced energy density is more than 1000 times of gasoline-burning and is very difficult to explain by chemical reaction mechanisms and we are considering the CCF-like nuclear origin.

However, about 10 watts thermal power is still considerably low power density to be applied for industrial energy devices; we need scaling-up. To increase amount of sample is a first simple approach, which we are now attempting. To manufacture nano-composite powders with controlled nano-islands (in 2-10 nm size) is an essential approach.

In the latest result that we reported at JCF19 Meeting, November 9, 2018 in Morioka Japan, we observed anomalously large heat burst. The burst happened in about 100 seconds with approximately 3 kW thermal power, impulsively. If we will be able to control and elongate this level power generation for much longer time, we will be approaching the goal.

RUBY This project is a an excellent example of the longtime cooperation between scientists in your country, and given the results, appears to be a successful model. How would you characterize the relationship between academia and industry in Japan?

AT We have done only minimum effort to organize available 6 groups (4 university groups and two company groups) to implement the NEDO-MHE 2015-2017 project. I was the leader and directed the experimental plans for collaboration works. Researchers have joined and moved from north (Sendai Tohoku University) to west (Kobe University, and Kyushu University) for experiments, and some-times gathered in Tokyo for steering/discussion meetings.

I hope this will be a seed for next step to set-up a bigger consortium of industrial groups and university academic groups. Our latest results on anomalous heat effect can be explained only by nuclear origin and we are struggling with NEDO’s negative stance to funding Nuclear Origin Research & Development.

MEXT (ministry of education, science and culture) is promoting nuclear R&D in a monopoly-like way by sending big funds to ITER and others, and are not brave enough to provide some portion of funding to MHE R&D. So, the situation is somehow similar to US and EU.

RUBY You’ve been struggling to model this elusive reaction since the very beginning. Can you describe in layman’s terms some of the main features of the TSC model, and how is this model tied to your experimental work?

AT Theoretically, in my view, there are no molecular physics processes available in nature for two deuterons or protons to approach close enough to make visible nuclear reactions. Only transient clusters like 4, 6 and 8 deuterons (or protons) with quantum-mechanically orthogonally coupled 4, 8 and 6 electron-clouds can dynamically condense one-way and make collapse in very closed inter-nuclear distances to induce multi-body strong-force (for D) or weak-strong-force (for H) fusion reactions.

These CCF reactions do not produce primary neutrons and gamma rays. The geometrical coupling of 4 deuterons (or protons) and 4 electron-clouds under tetrahedron-tetrahedron orthogonal arrangement makes TSC, tetrahedral symmetric condensate, that is a transient cluster state and not stable.

You may imagine two D2 or H2 molecules coupling with 90 degree crossing configuration. This configuration is not stable in free space (namely in gas) and is also difficult to form in D2 or H2 gas due to bouncing by mutual collision. However, once the rotation freedom of D2 or H2 is frozen by trapping at a surface catalytic site (a sub-nano hole) of binary metal nano-particle, another incident (or out-going) D2 or H2 molecule on the surface catalytic site can make transient TSC formation with very enhanced rate.

Once TSC forms, it very rapidly (in 1-2 femto seconds) condenses in one-through way to get to a collapsing state in a nuclear-force-exchanging close distance for 4 deuterons or protons+electrons. The resultant multi-body fusion happens to produce low energy charged particles (helium, deuterium and proton).

Secondary reactions may generate neutrons and gamma-rays with very weak levels as less than 10^-13 order of primary charged particles. So radiation will be actually neglected in industrial devices generating several kW power.

RUBY The 19th Meeting of CF Research Society just wrapped up. What can you say about some of the other results presented there?

AT Other interesting reports besides ours were two instances of AHE (anomalous heat effect) observed by the DSC (differential scanning calorimetry ) apparatus at Kyushu University. That unit is particularly for nano-metals and H-gas interactions with PNZ-type and Ni-Al and Ti-Al samples at 300-800 degree C.

Tohoku group reported AHE with many temperature and gas pressure spikes, which looked very similar in effect, though with smaller scale, to a very large burst/spike of AHE by a Cu-Ni/zirconia powder sample as observed at Kobe-U/Technova.

Iwate University group are reporting basic studies on H-gas and multi-layer nano-composite metal samples. Kyoto University group is extending/improving Yamaguchi-type metal-D-gas induced AHE by electric pulse trigger.

RUBY I’m sure you have heard about Dr. Tadahiko Mizuno’s laboratory damaged by the earthquake. The community reached out to him with donations to help re-build. Were you effected by the earthquake at all?

AT In June we had big quake at Osaka to damage houses, but MHE apparatus at Kobe was OK.

RUBY Dr. Takahashi, we are approaching the 30-year mark since the announcement of cold fusion, and every experimental fact has been hard fought for. Now, you are finally realizing some of the fruits of that labor and getting more heat than ever.

What is it about cold fusion that compelled you to spend a career struggling in this most difficult field?

AT Of course, we want to solve the global warming effect created by the consumption of fossil fuels like oil and we are planning to develop eco-friendly, radiation-free, compact, novel energy generators, hopefully in 30-50 years. The so-called cold fusion reaction, and in my view, the CCF, has great potential to provide an eternal solution, helping us to escape the oil-age.

However, as a scientist, it has been curiosity that has pushed me to find the real mechanisms of the claimed mystery and miracles of the AHE and radiation-less nuclear processes. My answer now is that CCF governs it. I will continue to work on what I can do until it becomes impossible.

Slide from ICCF-21 presentation shows what’s next for the MHE project.

Hear Dr. Akito Takahashi speak about the MHE project at the 21st International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science https://www.iccf21.com/.

The ICCF-21 presentation slides are here.

Dennis Cravens on the Cold Fusion Now! podcast

Physicist Dr. Dennis Cravens joins Ruby on the Cold Fusion Now! podcast for a discussion about experimental results gathered over a career of LENR research.

Dr. Cravens received his PhD from Florida State University and has been working on cold fusion since 1989. He has demonstrated multiple live LENR systems throughout the years, including NIWeek 2013 and more recently at the ICCF-21 conference, where he showed a live video feed of an active cell in Austin, Texas built with his associate Dennis Letts.

Collaborations between Dennis Cravens and Dennis Letts’ team have produced a unique cell, with cathode materials made by the team, ensuring consistency. They’ve closed in on a recipe to generating excess heat of an average of 7 Watts thermal for durational periods.

Episode 15 of the Cold Fusion Now! podcast with Dennis Cravens is available at our website https://coldfusionnow.org/cfnpodcast/ or subscribe in iTunes.


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Michael McKubre at ICCF-21

LENR consultant and former Director of Energy Research at SRI International Michael McKubre presented at the 21st International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science held at Colorado State University in Fort Collins Colorado. The five-day conference ran June 3-8, 2018 and featured multiple groups reporting solid results in the generation of excess heat and transmutations.

Several labs are regularly able to produce between 6-20 Watts excess thermal power and are now experimenting with the various parameters in order to determine how to scale that output up. There were several theory sessions and more theories presented, but no consensus on modeling features of the reaction was determined.

In episode 13 of the Cold Fusion Now! podcast, we join Michael McKubre just starting his talk on Monday morning June 4 with The Fleischmann Pons Heat and Ancillary Effects: What Do We Know, and Why? How Might We Proceed?

Listen at our podcast page https://coldfusionnow.org/cfnpodcast/ or subscribe in iTunes.

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Find more notes, audio, and photos of ICCF-21 courtesy the Cold Fusion Now! Collective here.

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