Greetings Friends, Happy 2020. These are challenging times and as we continue to wait for breakthrough, there still remains reason to hope that a cold fusion/LENR solution can and will provide deus ex machina.
Those who have the means to effect great change know the great promise of this technology, and are on task working to find answers to the scientific questions that remain.
For labs developing a technology, their last assignment is to scale up the on-demand LENR-power and then, the world will have a usable zero-carbon energy generator, and new living arrangements all around. It’s more than doable, and feeds my flickering optimism.
The Cold Fusion Now! website has been dormant, and I apologize for my hasty retirement. Circumstance demanded I give up the blogging to work on another project, and it’s finally coming to fruition. I think you’re really gonna dig it. Together with artist Matt Howarth, we’ve created a graphical story of the early days of cold fusion.
DISCOVER COLD FUSION is a comic book with big aspirations and brings us the experience of Drs. Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons as they discover a new kind of nuclear reaction, and the drama that ensued after announcing that discovery at the news conference.
The 32-page B&W comic with laminated color cover describes a series of events as recounted in the literature. Personal interviews with scientists who lived those awful and exciting years also contributed to the story. Order a copy from publisher Curtis Press Publisher of Science at https://www.curtis-press.com/.
The text forms a fictional narrative based on true events. In many cases, direct quotes are taken from books such as Fire and Ice by Eugene Mallove , Excess Heat by Charles Beaudette, and Nuclear Transmutation by Tadahiko Mizuno. The website https://www.discovercoldfusion.com/ has a complete listing of sources.
Chemists Michael McKubre and Melvin Miles consulted on the project and statements about their decades-long research into the LENR reaction are included in the pages. They also provided insight and perspective from the scientists’ point-of-view, knowing Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, both personally and professionally.
For over forty years, artist Matt Howarth has specialized in science fiction, working with authors such as Vernor Vinge, Greg Bear, Hal Clement, Nancy Collins, and others. He has collaborated with musicians including the Residents, Klaus Schulze, Steve Roach, Hugh Hopper, Conrad Schnitzler, to name a few. See a collection of his work here at http://matthowarth.com/
In DISCOVER COLD FUSION, Matt Howarth captures the wide-ranging emotion that runs throughout the story, as blacklisted scientists and honest engineers from around the world search for a solution to the mystery of the reaction, and are maligned for their effort.
Ruby Carat at the 22nd International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science Poster Session with DISCOVER COLD FUSION. Photo: Mitchell Swartz, JET Energy and NANORTech.
But this is a comic about science, not science fiction. It begins with a short history of where humans have sourced their energy, and includes educational material that explains the question of cold fusion. Young adults are mature enough to grasp the mottled humor throughout the dramatic parts, while older adults will recollect in their memories the way it happened for them.
These sample pages illustrate the most “sciency” part of the story.
We wanted to broaden the opportunity for distribution and have the comic published, as opposed to putting it out ourselves, and we contacted a couple, but no one was ready to do it. One publisher remarked “Didn’t you know? Cold fusion isn’t real!”
But one daring publisher was interested, and that was Neil Shuttlewood of Curtis Press Publisher of Science. He’s part of a small publishing house with a unique taste for non-fiction. Space exploration and science is their focus. In choosing DISCOVER COLD FUSION to be part of their library of titles, they reveal an openness rare in today’s miserly world.
Read the interview with Ruby Carat by Christy Frazier, Managing Editor of Infinite Energy Magazine.
DISCOVER COLD FUSION is the promotional item to take cold fusion outside of the inner circle and into the mass mind. You can drop a copy by the high school chemistry club, or leave one at the doctor’s waiting room, your political representatives office, or the airport terminal – someone is sure to be inspired.
The need for a new energy solution should be apparent as the collapse of eco-systems accelerate and pandemic sweeps man’s crumbling edifice. Here I was thinking Peak Oil would be our undoing, but mass extinction is the looming endgame. It is Zero Carbon Now! or “Soylent Green” tomorrow.
I can’t seem to will a technology into existence, but as artists, we can only express our desire for a better tomorrow and describe what that might look like. I hope this story of courage and integrity gives you the same inspiration it gives me to keep on going.
Get a copy of DISCOVER COLD FUSION exclusively from the publisher’s website at https://www.curtis-press.com/. It’s sold and shipped from the U.K. so here’s a currency converter https://www.xe.com/ to help with the exchange. When you get your copy, tell me what you think and post your review on LENR-forum.com. I’ve decided to hold a virtual comic book release party in a couple weeks, so look for details on that.
THANK YOU for your support. THANK YOU for your work. And THANK YOU for being part of the solution to save a planet full of species and give humans an opportunity for a greet tech future.
You haven’t heard the last of me. I’m just starting on new project now and I won’t stop until I’m done.
Press Release Breukelen/Utrecht. — After three years without a conference, GlobalBEM is back with an informative program that should interest all: connecting the dots between technology, consciousness, health, the economy, the environment, grassroots activism and crowdfunding!
GlobalBEM, Breakthrough Energy Movement hosted their first conference in The Netherlands 2012 and now we are back in were it all started. GlobalBEM featured world-renowned speakers and scientists presenting on topics like zero-point energy, low-energy nuclear reactions, magnetics, and quantum disentanglement. The second addition was in Boulder Colorado 2013, third one in Bastrop Texas 2016 and we are now ramping up for the fourth event this November 9&10.
GlobalBEM hopes to ignite discussion and activism around breakthrough energy—which the group defines as an abundant energy source that produces zero emissions and is clean, safe, reliable, and affordable.
The conference will feature over 10 notable scientists, industry insiders, and creative thinkers focused on the science and future direction of breakthrough energy solutions. Presentations and discussion panels will cover emerging energy technologies like zero-point, magnetic, hydro, plasma, and cold fusion low-energy nuclear reactions. Prominent speakers, such as Mats Lewan, Jorg Schauberger, Toby Grotz and others are scheduled to present.
GlobalBEM aims to provide a place for conference attendees to formulate strategies for research sharing, prototype development, and funding of large-scale breakthrough energy projects. Speakers will share resources for do-it-yourself breakthrough energy projects in an open-source format.
The conference will be held at the Van de Valk Hotel in Breukelen on November 9&10. Single, multi-day, and streaming tickets are available. Registration and more information can be found at globalbem.com
GlobalBEM, Breakthrough Energy Movement is a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization based in the Netherlands. What began as a small group quickly evolved into a worldwide international network of scientists, researchers, academics, artists, business owners, and the general public. It is dedicated to supporting the development of breakthrough energy through hosting conferences, producing media, and act as a facilitator for a global community, a reunion of humanity calling for the new energy paradigm.
Frank Acland started E-CatWorld.com
on April 4 in the year 2011 after Andrea Rossi had performed a public
demonstration of his nickel-hydrogen-based steam generator named the Energy Catalyzer, or E-Cat.
“A Focardi-Rossi news conference was late in January of that year, and I became aware of it through some friends. I just got interested in it, and thought, why isn’t this being reported on more anywhere else?” he says.
“I thought it was a story worth following, and I thought it was worth putting out there, and once I started, I really haven’t been able to stop.”
“To me, the story has never died. It’s become a long and winding road, but I’m just as interested now as I was then. So I haven’t stopped, and I don’t plan on stopping until there is some obvious resolution. Since I don’t know what the future holds, I’m just going to keep going until something happens where I can’t go any longer.”
Back in 2011, the Vortex-l mailing list was where speculative science and new energy talk happened. ColdFusionNow.org had been in existence barely a year, and rejected the belicose comments and unknowable claims. E-CatWorld.com stepped in to host the debate over Andrea Rossi’s technology, but even there, comments were quickly curbed to prevent all but the news and blow-by-blow of the engineering developments.
“I didn’t want to be administering a website that was full of acrimony and arguments, so I set up the rules that I was comfortable living with,” says Frank Acland, whose been actively screening the comments since.
“I wanted E-Cat World to be a place there this topic is taken seriously. I have always felt that Andrea Rossi came up with something important. I’ve never felt he’s been telling a big lie all years over what he’s done, though, obviously, he’s extremely secretive. So I just made it a policy that this would be a forum where we’re not going to argue over whether he’s a fraud or liar – that’s not what I wanted the website to be. I’ve set up moderation rules that are listed on my site and I’ve stuck to them.”
“I know there’s some people who don’t like the fact that certain comments are not allowed on the site. People can talk however they want to elsewhere. For me, it’s worked well.”
With over 3000 posts to-date, E-CatWorld maintains a hopeful outlook on a Rossi reactor. Frank Acland is not a scientist, but a librarian by training, and has catalogued the details of the E-Cat drama since it emerged through the Internet in 2011.
A visit with Andrea Rossi
It was 2017 when Frank Acland visited Andrea Rossi. “I received an invitation to come and visit with him in Florida in March, early 2017. He took me to his lab, and I believe it was in the actual Doral facility where he had been running that big machine for the yearlong period.”
“I never actually saw that unit. This was right in the middle of the lawsuit with Industrial Heat. He spent the year inside the shipping container, and this was shortly following the end of that test and when he was involved in litigation.”
“At that point, he was working on the Quark, it was a small machine that was on the desktop. The best picture of that has been published by Mats Lewan back in January. It was a little tabletop thing. We took measurements and he showed me calculations, and at that time, the COP was around 20,000 or something like that. That was at the beginning of when he had developed the first iteration of the plasma system, and that’s what he’s continuing to work on now.”
E-Cat QXClaims: volume ≈ 1 cm3, thermal output 10-30 W, negligible input control power, internal temperature > 2,600° C, no radiation above background.
“It was fascinating of course, because I’d never seen an E-Cat in my life. I was a student and he was a tutor. He was showing me what he had, he was taking measurements with a spectrometer. He showed me how he calculates the energy in the plasma. Of course, this is not an area where I have any expertise at all. I was basically sitting there like he was the teacher and I was the student, and he was explaining how he was coming to his conclusions as to what the COP was.”
“So I saw it with my own eyes and I kind of followed along with his calculations. But this was in the early days, and I did notice there was a big control system on the desk, and he was putting some kind of secret waveform into his plasma, and I did not know what was in there.”
“He was measuring the energy on the plasma side of the control system, but he wasn’t measuring the input into the control system. So there was that issue.”
“I was basically there as someone who was following along, and thinking, ‘Wow, if this is true, it’s a really a very big deal.'”
“At the time that I went, before I went into the room, he pulled out a piece of paper and I signed an NDA. While I was there, I wasn’t taking photographs. I realized that this isn’t something I’m going to be able to go home and report about.”
“Later on that year was the presentation held in Stockholm, and he showed the same system, and then I asked him after that, OK now you’ve shown to to the world, is it OK if I report on what I witnessed? Basically, what I saw was what he showed in Stockholm.”
Videographer Eli Elliott and Andrea Rossi are seen in Miami, FL when Cold Fusion Now! visited and interviewed Andrea Rossi in 2012. Polaroid Photo: Ruby Carat
The MegaWatt IH Lawsuit
Frank Acland had visited the Doral location, but had never seen the MegaWatt unit. Andrea Rossi had abandoned the idea of a large energy generator and returned to the problem of controlling the reaction in a smaller reactor first.
Says Frank Acland, “I never saw the megawatt unit. All I learned about the megawatt unit is what he reported during that time, and what came out in the court case.”
“I think the megawatt unit actually worked, but it sounded like he had to be there constantly to keep it going, it needed constant care and attention. It was not something he could commercialize in that at that point in that format, but I believe he learned a lot from it.”
“I think he was able to translate information he got from the big unit and start making small units, and he’s still perfecting it, so we’re not there yet.”
Why did Andrea Rossi give up on the possibility of $100 million dollars and support to develop the reactor offered by Industrial Heat? Frank Acland gave his take.
“I don’t much beyond what was reported in his blog and also what came out in court, but when Andrea Rossi made a deal with Industrial Heat, my sense is he probably thought they were going to be supporters of him, and that they would be working together. When they started working with other researchers – and I think this was the thing that upset him initially – was that they were not only supporting him and the E-Cat, but they were supporting other researchers.”
“I don’t think that sat well with him. As we know, from the very beginnings, he’s very circumspect about what he says about his technology. He probably told Industrial Heat things that he assumed were going to his supporters – and this was one of the complaints in the court case – that he was concerned that they were sharing things that he told them in confidence with other researchers. Maybe he felt like his IP was being violated or shared, and that was not what he was hoping for when the deal was initially struck.”
“That was not something that he had envisioned, and he wanted to fight to get out of it. I don’t remember the day when he started that lawsuit, but that’s when everything blew up.”
Frank Acland is still confident in Andrea Rossi’s ability to generate a reaction, but whether or not a technology will emerge from the Leonardo Corp. lab is another question.
Andrea Rossi stays the course
“My feeling is that yes, I think he has a very advanced technology. That may not be the consensus. I think a lot of people had hoped that following the press conference with Sergio Focardi, all of this would be out in the open by now, and we’d be using E-Cats in the business world, if not in our homes, but it’s been a long time.”
“But my impression is that Andrea Rossi has always had very big ambitions as an industrialist. As an industrialist, he is extremely secretive because probably – and I think he’s a very smart man whose worked extremely hard over these years – but, if somebody knew what they were doing, and knew the ins and outs of the E-Cat it would not be too difficult for them to replicate, and I think that’s something he definitely does not want to happen, because as an industrialist, this is not in his business interest to share this information.”
“I think that’s the reason he is being so guarded. He wants to make that possibility as slim as possible. I don’t know if that’s possible to happen. There are many people who realize there is something this LENR phenomenon, and mainstream science has dismissed this as being an area for people on the fringes of science.”
“When the day comes that they realize, ‘hey this is for real’, I think there will be an explosion in research and there will be people developing this technology in different ways all over the world, and at that point, it will be impossible to keep secrets.”
“But I don’t think Andrea Rossi is going to change his course. He’s made the decision on how he’s going to go about it and I think he’s going to stick to his guns.”
When asked if Andrea Rossi has heard about the Tadahiko Mizuno report, Frank Acland said “His standard response when it comes to questions like that is, ‘I never comment on my competitors.'”
“I don’t know what he thinks about the Mizuno report. Obviously, if they are using systems that he has experience with, then I’m sure he’s paying attention to it, and trying to maintain his advantage.”
“I think he might be able to learn from people, but I don’t think he’s going to collaborate with people. That’s just the way he’s operated all these years. I’m sure that he reads; I’m sure he pays close attention to what gets published. I don’t think he’s going to change his way of operating. He’s set his course and he’s going to do his best to stick to his course, and whether it’s successful or not , we’ll have to see.”
“I honestly think he has a very advanced technology. I do not know how successful his business plan will turn out to be. That’s yet to be seen. It’s still not entered the mainstream of business or industry. As he said recently, ‘he is in a pioneer phase’. So I think he’s working with select customers. I have no information about who any of his current customers are. There’s a great deal of mystery, even to me, though I’ve been following it closely for years.”
“I’m not really scouring the Internet – ‘oh, who could he be working with?’ Unless someone reveals themselves, I don’t think we’ll know. Until there is something to sell or on the market, it will take a customer speaking out to get more information.”
Optimism fuels the future
Several other labs have recently achieved increasing levels of excess heat from their heat generator designs, including Tadahiko Mizuno, who has reported kilowatt-sized excess heat.
“The encouraging thing about the Mizuno technology,” says Frank Acland, “is that he’s written a paper giving the instructions, saying exactly how he did it, and encouraging others to follow suit. And from what I’ve seen, there are numerous people who are interested in doing this or already are doing this.”
“Actually I read on your website Cold Fusion Now! that Mizuno said that he’s given reactors to 12 different groups to test out, and I’m very interested to learn what they report. I hope it won’t be too long. Mizuno himself said the he was going to reveal data, maybe at the ICCF-22 conference.”
Ruby spoke up about the possible toxicity of nickel dust and that preparation of the mesh should be done in a glove box for maximum safety.
“Mizuno sad that nickel powder is very toxic, responded Frank, “I’m sure it’s important to take every safety recommendation.”
“Also, the Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project’s Alan Goldwater has published a live document talking about his preparations, I’m not sure what stage he’s at yet, but I’m encouraged!”
Energy 2.0 Society prepares for breakthrough
“The Energy2.0 Society is a small group of people mostly from Iowa, though one of our members is from Washington State. We formed in 2015 because we all felt like LENR was an important technology, and we all wanted to encourage more people to investigate it and learn more about it.”
“For quite a while, it’s been difficult to get this message out, there’s not really much that one could point to in terms of a third party saying yes, this is real and this works.”
“We’ve had some discussions recently about the development of the Mizuno technology and we’re hopeful that within the not-to-distant future, we’d like to have more meetings and discussions with people outside of the LENR community about what this technology can do, what its potential is, and what the implications are for society in general. But we haven’t had very much to hold up and say ‘look at this!’ We’ve been sort of watching and waiting, along with many other people following this technology. and we’re hoping that maybe in the next year or so, there will be more to talk about.”
“The cold fusion community is a very small community by the size of it, when you compare it to other things that people are interested in like politics, music, sports. I’d say there’s probably maybe 10,000 people around the world who follow it seriously. The solar industry is a huge industry, with many thousands of people working in it; it’s massive compared to cold fusion. But I think at some point, cold fusion will be where solar is right now.”
“Go to E-CatWorld.com and that’s where you can find everything I’ve published over the years, I think its over 3000 posts – it’s been a long time – and I’ve never tired of it yet. Someone’s got to do it!”
“Sometimes it’s a bit of chore, but most of the time it’s a labor of love.”
This is a re-post of an article published May 19, 2019 by Vitaly Alekseevich Kirkinsky at REGNUM in honor of the 30th anniversary of the announcement of cold fusion.
A remote report by the leading technologist of the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, named after Academician V. S. Sobolev, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Vitaly Alekseevich Kirkinsky presented “Cold nuclear fusion and transmutation of elements: experiments, theory, patents, natural manifestations” at the conference “Cold fusion – 30 years: results and prospects”, held in Moscow on March 23, 2019.
“Cold fusion – 30 years: results and prospects” held in Moscow on March 23, 2019.
* * *
I became interested in cold fusion right after 30 years ago when the radio news of electrochemists Martin Fleishman and Stanley Pons at the University of Utah, USA, was announced on the radio. They argued that during electrolysis of lithium salt solutions in heavy water, a yield of neutrons and excess energy of about 1 watt was observed at the palladium electrode, as well as an increase
in tritium concentration in the solution, which, in their opinion, was caused by nuclear fusion of helium from deuterium. This did not fit into the existing ideas of physicists at all, since such reactions could only be carried out at enormous energies. The opinion was that this data was the result of an error or a fraud. There were very serious arguments in favor of this: no products of nuclear reactions were detected, an increase in the tritium content could be caused by its accumulation upon evaporation of heavy water, and the energy release should have been accompanied by a huge neutron flux.
According to the accepted theory, the implementation of thermonuclear fusion requires temperatures of more than 100 million degrees. The fundamental idea of plasma heating and confinement in toroidal chambers placed in a magnetic field – TOKAMAKs was proposed by academicians A. D. Sakharov and I. E. Tamm 70 years ago. The practical implementation of this idea ran into extreme technical difficulties. According to Academician E.P. Velikhov, more than $ 40 billion has already been spent on these works in our country. Russia is participating in the ITER international fusion reactor development program, $20 billion is planned to be spent on the first stage only. By 2027, it is planned to build an experimental reactor and begin experiments with plasma, which can give the answer – whether it will be possible to create the necessary conditions for thermonuclear combustion. If successful, the test results will be the basis for the project even larger – a demonstration thermonuclear reactor DEMO. The DEMO experience in turn will serve as the basis for the design of the first experimental industrial station. However, even if all the scientific and technical problems in half a century can be solved, there are big doubts about the economic feasibility and safety of obtaining energy in fusion reactors.
Given the enormous cost of the project, the life of the reactors due to the strong neutron flux, judging by the experience of operating less powerful tokamaks, will be only a few months. Neutron-free reactions require even higher plasma temperatures and much more expensive reactors.
According to the technical conditions, the thermonuclear reaction can be maintained only in large-volume reactors. A single filling of the working chamber of the reactor with a volume of 830 cubic meters. meters with a mixture of deuterium and tritium will cost more than a billion dollars. Only due to the decay of radioactive tritium monthly losses amount to more than $ 160 thousand. Tritium requires atomic reactors. Diffusion of deuterium and tritium through the walls of the reactor or microcracks can lead to the formation of an explosive mixture with atmospheric oxygen and the explosion of a reactor with serious consequences.
The possibility of implementing nuclear fusion at low temperatures could open up tremendous prospects for energy.
About a hundred groups around the world tried to reproduce the experiments of Fleischmann and Pons [30]. The most convincing results were obtained in Japan [31–33]. Yoshiaki Arata and Yui-Chang Zhang found an excess heat yield of 200–500 MJ / cm3 and the formation of a significant amount of helium in a deuterated palladium black placed in a closed palladium ampoule, which served as a cathode for 5,000 hours of electrochemical experiments. It should be specially noted that the Helium-3 / Helium-4 ratio in the experimental products was 4–5 orders of magnitude higher than atmospheric. Similar experiments were replicated in the laboratory of the Electric Power Research Institute in the USA [34]. The release of excess heat and its correlation with the release of tritium and helium was confirmed. The ratio of Helium-3 / Helium-4 in the products of the experiments was 44,000 times higher than atmospheric.
These and many other results were not published in peer-reviewed journals, but mainly in the materials of international and national conferences. Official science considered them unreliable. Even 23 years after the first report of a new phenomenon in the obituary about the death of Martin Fleischman in the authoritative journal Nature, it was written:
“… cold fusion is now regarded as one of the most famous cases of what the chemist Irwin Langmuir called pathological science: science of things that aren`t so.”
The main reason for the persistence in ignoring the new scientific direction was the impossibility of a theoretical explanation of the experimental data. As the whole history of the development of science shows, new phenomena are recognized only after the conditions for their reliable reproduction are found and a theoretical explanation is given on the basis of the fundamental laws of nature. Building a theory of the phenomenon is an essential stage of a major discovery. For this reason, the development of the theoretical foundations of the mechanism and kinetics of nuclear reactions in condensed matter at low energies is no less important than the detection and confirmation of anomalous phenomena. For practical use in the energy sector, it is necessary to increase the intensity of nuclear reactions by a factor of millions in comparison with the first experiments, which is extremely difficult to implement without a theoretical understanding of the phenomenon.
Since 1989, more than a hundred works have been published in which the most diverse hypotheses have been expressed about the causes of the “Fleischmann and Pons effect.” Links and their classification is given by us in [2, 5]. Most authors were limited to assumptions made in qualitative form. In a survey [35], the theorists of the United States and Russia concluded:
“Despite considerable efforts, it was not possible to create a theory of cold nuclear fusion that quantitatively or even qualitatively describes experimental results. Models in which it is stated that they have solved this task are far from achieving the goal. ”
At many subsequent international conferences, it was noted that the creation of the theory of nuclear reactions in condensed matter is a task of paramount importance.
Experimenters carried out and still conduct experiments mostly by the inefficient trial and error method. At the 9th Beijing Cold Synthesis Conference in 2003, I asked Martin Fleishman a question; what, in his opinion, is more important for the development of this direction: experiments or theory? He answered briefly: “Both” .
* * *
From the very beginning of our research, we set as the main task the development of the theory of nuclear reactions at low energies, combining this with experiments.
The problem of overcoming the Coulomb barrier is covered in articles published in Europhysics Letters [2, 3], a monograph [5] and a number of articles in International Conference Materials [6, 7, 10–12].
Our model of the mechanism of nuclear reactions is based on taking into account the dynamic screening of proton (deuteron) charges by external electronic orbitals of metal atoms. Both semiclassical and quantum mechanical models were used. Several hundred thousand numerical experiments were carried out using molecular dynamics methods at random initial positions of deuterons during their diffusion in the crystal structures of a number of metals, which showed how close they are to each other. It turned out that, although the average distance between them is approximately the same as in the D2 molecule – 0.74 Ǻ, several percent of the pairs come closer to a distance of less than 0.1 Ǻ, up to 0.01 Ǻ. At such distances, nuclear fusion occurs due to the tunnel effect, which is calculated according to the formulas generally accepted in quantum mechanics. Calculations using these models for the first time allowed us to obtain quantitative data on the probability and rate of nuclear reactions of hydrogen isotopes in a number of metals: palladium, titanium, lanthanum, alpha- and gamma-iron [5–8, 11, 12, 14].
Together with the theoretical physicist of Altai State University, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences A. I. Goncharov, we performed a computer simulation of the behavior of hydrogen atoms in a medium of free electrons in metals [13]. A previously unknown phenomenon has been discovered: the formation of unsteady complexes of protons or deuterons with orbits of electrons rotating around them in varying size and shape. In size, they are 3–4 orders of magnitude smaller than a hydrogen atom and only one order larger than a neutron. We called them miniatoms or quasineutrons. Due to their electrically neutrality, in a short time of their existence, they can freely move in the crystalline structures of metals and approach the nuclei of hydrogen or metal isotopes at distances at which nuclear interaction occurs due to the tunnel effect. This solves the key problem of overcoming the Coulomb barrier. The calculated reaction rate between deuterons in palladium deuteride taking into account the formation of miniatoms is 6 orders of magnitude higher than previously obtained on the basis of the model of dynamic deformation of electronic orbitals.
Our calculations allowed us to find ways to intensify nuclear reactions of deuterium in the crystal structure of metal hydrides. It was possible to find a nontrivial and effective way to intensify nuclear interaction due to isostructural phase transitions, the probability of overcoming the barrier at which increases significantly, which increases the rate of nuclear fusion by several orders of magnitude.
The reasons for the extremely strong (tens of orders of magnitude) attenuation of neutron and hard gamma radiation during nuclear reactions in metal hydrides and deuterides at low temperatures are justified in comparison with thermonuclear processes in plasma. This is due to the mechanism of nuclear reactions occurring through the intermediate stage of the formation of miniatoms. The characteristic features of such reactions in metal hydrides (deuterides) and their effect on radioactive radiation are considered in [21]. It has been shown that nuclear fusion energy is released mainly in the form of softer – X-ray radiation, which, when absorbed in metals, fuel, reactor and cooling system leads to their heating. This is a very practical feature of nuclear reactions in condensed matter, since protection against x-ray radiation with the help of screens is not difficult and is well developed in scientific and medical devices.
The theoretically calculated emission of excess energy in the process of the α-β transition in palladium deuteride was verified by us together with the thermochemical measurement expert V. A. Drebushchak in experiments on the SETARAM DSK-III scanning calorimeter using a specially developed technique. The results of eight series of experiments showed that during the sorption-desorption of deuterium in a fine-crystalline palladium powder, an excess energy of more than 1 W per gram of palladium deuteride is released, while in similar experiments with a light isotope of hydrogen, no anomalous effects were observed. These results were published by us in the Europhysics letters [4] and in the materials of the international conference [9].
Based on the theoretical and experimental studies, a method and device for energy production were developed, for which two Russian patents [26, 27], Eurasian and European patents [28, 29], each of which includes more than 20 private inventions, were obtained.
Their main features are the use of nanopowders of specially selected metals and intermetallic compounds, which, when saturated with deuterium or ordinary hydrogen, undergo isostructural transformations with a change in composition with a change in temperature or pressure.
In Fig. 1 shows a diagram of the device according to patent [26] with a priority date of August 3, 1992.
The installation includes two interconnected steel vessels 1 and 2 with valves 3 and 4 and pockets in which electric heaters 5, 6 and thermocouples 9 and 10 are placed. Outside the vessels there are copper tubes 7 and 8 with cooling fluid. A fine-crystalline metal (Me) is placed inside the vessels, whose hydrides or deuterides undergo an isostructural transition with temperature. Compressed hydrogen, deuterium or their mixture is fed from the connected cylinder 16 to one of the vessels until complete saturation, then the heater is turned on and the valve opens to connect to the second vessel, outside of which cooling water is passed. After a while, the heater of the second vessel turns on, and the process goes in the opposite direction. The cycles of sorption-desorption are repeated many times.
In Fig. 2 shows a diagram of a deuterium heat generator according to patents [27, 28] together with a system for measuring energy balance.
Designations in Fig. 2: 1 – the inner cylinder of the reactor, 2 – the outer cylinder of the reactor, 3 – the cooling casing, 4 – the working volume with the working substance, 5 – shutter, 6 – pressure nut, 7 – dust filters, 8 – locking seal block, 9 – flange joints with a vacuum system and a shut-off valve, 10 – thermal insulation, 11 – heating elements, 12 – coolant, 13 – seals, 14 – pressure nut of the cooling sleeve, 15 – supply and control system for the flow of coolant, 16 – thermocouple measuring unit, 17 – thermostat combined thermocouples s, 18 – power supply, 19 – transformer, 20 – thermocouples, 21 – thermocouple temperature sensor of the liquid entering the heat exchanger, 22 – thermocouple temperature sensor of the liquid leaving the heat exchanger, 23 – Watt-hour electric meter of active energy.
A general view of the manufactured installation is shown in Fig. 3
32.7 g of specially prepared fine crystalline palladium with a particle size of 20 to 100 nm were placed in a 308 cm3 volume heat generator reactor. After evacuation to ~ 1 Pa, from 700 to 2600 ml of gaseous deuterium obtained from heavy water were introduced into the reactor. Measurements were carried out both at constant temperature and pressure, and with cyclic temperature changes from 50º to 600ºC. The energy consumed was measured by the voltage and current strength in the heater, and the released energy was calculated by the heat capacity and the mass of water heated in the heat exchanger. The results of experiments on the dependence of excess energy on temperature are presented in the graph (Fig. 4) [18].
The relative excess energy averaged ~ 23% with maximum values up to 35% of the expended energy, which corresponds to the emitted power of ~ 20 Watts per gram of palladium or 1 kW per gram of deuterium. The maximum excess power was ~ 600 watts. The total amount of excess energy released is ~ 100 MJ, which is 2500 times higher than the energy of possible chemical reactions in the reactor. This proves that excess energy is due not to chemical, but to nuclear processes. The energy release, which is 25–35% higher than that consumed, was confirmed in a series of experiments with cycles of heating and cooling the reactor.
Evidence of nuclear reactions in the reactor is an increase in neutron and gamma radiation fluxes when the temperature rises to 400ºC and decreases to the background level during cooling (Fig. 5 and 6) [21].
The measured increase in radioactive radiation does not exceed variations in the natural cosmic background, but the possibility of reproducibly changing their level depending on temperature proves that nuclear reactions occur in the reactor.
The observed intensity of radioactive radiation is many orders of magnitude lower than in thermonuclear reactions in plasma for the equivalent release of total energy, which has been repeatedly noted in all studies of cold nuclear fusion. Nevertheless, it should be said that safety issues, especially when working with plasma plants for cold nuclear fusion, require further serious study.
Even more convincing evidence of nuclear reactions was obtained by examining the contents of the reactor after a series of 65 experiments.
The analysis of the initial palladium and products obtained after the whole series of experiments was carried out by two methods of atomic emission spectral analysis at the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy of the SB RAS. In the first of them, developed by VMK-Optoelectronics, the “wake-up-blowing” method at the Potok installation with electric arc excitation, the samples were mixed with especially pure graphite at a ratio of 1:50 and after grinding in a mortar they were fed into an electric arc. Five parallel samples were measured by comparing the intensities of 2–3 spectral lines with standards of known composition.
In another method, atomic emission spectral analysis with inductively coupled ISP-AES plasma, IRIS used solutions previously prepared by dissolving the test substances. We also used laser mass spectral analysis of MS-AES at the IONH RAS using an EMAL-2 instrument. The isotopic composition of palladium was also determined at the IGM SB RAS by the mass spectral method with inductively coupled ICP-MS plasma.
A comparison of the results of analyzes performed by the methods used allows us to come to the following conclusions [19].
1. During the interaction of gaseous deuterium with a number of elements – impurities in the initial palladium: Li, Be, B, C, F, Mg, Si, S, K, Ca, Ti, V, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn – their transmutations were observed that are described by generalized nuclear reactions:
with the release of significant energy w, calculated from the increase in mass defect (Table 1).
2. For 15 elements in which a similar reaction would lead to a decrease in mass defect: Ge, As, Y, Cd, Sn, Sb, La, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb , Lu, Pt, Hg, Pb, Bi, Hf, Ta, a change in the content of elements within the error of spectral analysis methods does not occur.
3. A significant (by two orders of magnitude) increase in the silver content in the product of experiments is most likely due to the reaction of palladium isotopes with high-energy protons — products of a nuclear fusion reaction from deuterons.
4. The isotopic composition of the palladium product of the experiments within the accuracy of the analysis of ICP-MS (± 1%) is identical to the original.
5. The estimate of the energy released during nuclear reactions of the synthesis of helium isotopes from deuterium and due to the transmutation of impurity elements approximately corresponds to the total energy released in the entire cycle of experiments.
The geological evidence of nuclear reactions of hydrogen in the core of the Earth are: high heat flux from a nucleus of 13 ± 3 TW recorded by geophysicists, unexplained by known causes; abnormal ratios of isotopes of He, S, Fe and others in rocks of deep origin and associated hydrothermals; high contents of heavy Fe isotopes in iron meteorites – the remnants of metal nuclei of asteroids (analogues of planetary nuclei) The energy release in nuclear reactions of hydrogen, observed in experiments, in terms of the mass of the nucleus, is much higher than the heat flux from it, and the current energy estimates of the hydrogen content in the core are sufficient to ensure the total heat flux of the Earth over many billions of years. The melting of silicate rocks caused by the heating and formation of water when hydrogen enters the mantle leads to the formation and rise of giant magmatic masses — plumes, an increase in the Earth’s radius and the breaking of its upper hard shell — the lithosphere into large plates. The arrival of hot magmas to split cracks leads to the formation of areas of elevation of the level of the asthenosphere (partially molten layer) and the sliding of plates from them under the action of gravitational forces. Chips of compression occur in the areas of plate collision and subduction zones are formed — plate immersions or mountain systems are formed during the thickening and deformation of the lithosphere. The mechanism that drives lithospheric plates is discussed in detail in my previously published article and monograph [23, 24]. At that time, the reason for the warming up and expansion of the Earth was unclear. Our subsequent work found that the reason for this is the energy released during nuclear reactions of hydrogen in the Earth’s core. The rise of large plumes in the continental regions, which originated on the border with the core, causes outpouring of basaltic magma, an example of which are gigantic Siberian traps in thickness. The processes occurring under the influence of nuclear reactions in the Earth’s core are ultimately the root cause of the origin of many magmatic and hydrothermal ore deposits, in particular nickel, platinum, palladium, gold and others. The reactions of cold nuclear fusion and transmutation of elements are the main energy source of global geological processes.
Theoretically and experimentally established, as well as confirmed by natural facts, the possibility of synthesis and transmutation of elements not only in stars, but also in terrestrial conditions, is of fundamental importance for geochemistry and cosmochemistry.
Currently, studies of nuclear reactions at low energies are intensively conducted in many countries of the world, hundreds of articles and dozens of patents have been published, and international and national scientific conferences are held annually. Unfortunately, this branch of science in our country has not yet received government support. Work on this topic is associated with risk, so it was not included in the research plans and was not funded. The publication of works that run counter to traditional ideas is extremely difficult, and in Russian magazines – until recently, it was actually banned. The lack of articles in leading journals was the reason for rejecting applications at the RFBR – an alternative source of funds for basic research. For 30 years, not a single cold fusion project has been supported.
It is also worth noting that the formation of this direction coincided with two decades of perestroika, which very seriously affected the financing of science. Private investors are not interested in investing in projects that do not guarantee quick returns. For these reasons, we conducted expensive studies at our own expense. Almost all groups working on this subject were in the same position. Many of them disbanded, and some researchers went abroad. The continuation of such a scientific and technical policy will lead to a technological lag in our country. The success of the Russian enthusiasts will not be enough for development. Russia will have to pay to foreign patent holders for each kilowatt-hour of energy produced by the new technology.
IA REGNUM, providing authors with the opportunity to popularize their developments, makes an important contribution to the development of this breakthrough direction.
Details:
1. Kirkinsky V. A., Novikov Yu. A. 1997. The problem of nucleosynthesis in geological processes. In the book. “Earth sciences on the threshold of the 21st century: new ideas, approaches, solutions”, Moscow, Scientific World, p. 85.
2. Kirkinsky V. A., Novikov Yu. A. 1998. Theoretical modeling of cold nuclear fusion. Novosibirsk, 48 p.
3. Kirkinskii V. A., Novikov Yu. A. 1999. A new approach to theoretical modeling of nuclear fusion in palladium deuteride. Europhysics Letters, v. 46, No. 4, pp. 448−453.
4. Kirkinskii V. A., Drebushchak V. A., Khmelnikov A.I. 2002. Excess heat release during deuterium sorption-desorption by palladium powder palladium deuteride. Europhysics Letters, v. 58, No. 3, pp. 462−467.
5. Kirkinskii V. A., Novikov Yu. A. Theoretical modeling of cold fusion. Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk State University, 2002, 105 p.
6. Kirkinskii V. A., Novikov Yu. A. 2002, Hydrogen Isotopes of Numerical Computation. Experiment in Geosciences, v. 10, No1, pp. 51−53.
7. Kirkinskii V. A., Novikov Yu. A. 2003. Numerical calculations of cold fusion in metal deuterides. In the book: “Condensed Matter Nuclear Science” (Proceedings of the ICCF-9, ed. By Xing Z. Li), pp. 162−165
8. Kirkinskii V. A., Novikov Yu. A., 2003. Freedom of the Earth’s interior. In the book: “Condensed Matter Nuclear Science” (Proceedings of the ICCF-9, ed. By Xing Z. Li), 166−169, 2003.
9. Kirkinskii V. A., Drebushchak V. A., Khmelnikov A.I. 2003. Experimental evidence of heat output during deuterium sorption-desorption in palladium deuteride. In the book: “Condensed Matter Nuclear Science” (Proc. Of the ICCF-9, ed. By Xing Z. Li), pp. 170−173.
10. Kirkinskii, V. A., Novikov, Yu. A. 2004. Modeling of dynamic screening effects in solid state. Europhysics Letters. Vol. 67, N 3, pp 362−367.
11. Kirkinskii V. A., Novikov Yu. A., 2006. Calculation of nuclear reaction probability in a crystal lattice of lanthanum deuteride. In the book “Progress in condensed matter nuclear science.” Editor A. Takahashi, World Scientific Publ. Co., Proc. of 12th Conference on cold fusion.
12. Kirkinskii V. A., Novikov Yu. A., 2006. Calculation of nuclear reaction probabilities in a crystal lattice of titanium deuteride. In the book “Condensed Matter Nuclear Science”. Editors: P. Hagelstein and S. Chubb. World Scientific, Proc. of the ICCF-10, pp. 681–685.
13. Goncharov A I., Kirkinskii.V. A., 2006. Theoretical modeling of electron flow action on probability of nuclear fusion of deuterons. In the book “Progress in Condensed Matter Nuclear Science”, Editor A. Takahashi. World Scientific Proceedings of 12th conference on cold fusion.
14. Kirkinskii V. A., 2008. Estimation of geofusion probability. In the book: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (ICCF 13), Moscow, pp. 674−678.
15. Kirkinskii V. A., Khmelnikov A. I., 2008. Setup for measuring of energy balance at interaction of metals and hydrogen isotopes gas at high temperatures and pressures Proc. of the 13th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (ICCF-13), Moscow, p. 43–46.
16. Kirkinsky V. A., 2015. Experimental evidence of nuclear reactions in the Earth’s core. Proceedings of VESEMPG-2015. P.270-275.
17. Kirkinsky V. A., 2015. Nuclear hydrogen reactions as a source of energy for the Earth’s core. Proceedings of VESEMPG-2015. P.276−281.
18. Kirkinsky V. A., Khmelnikov A. I., 2016. Results of measurement of excess energy in a deuterium heat generator. Materials of the 22nd Russian Conference on Cold Transmutation of Cores of Chemical Elements and Ball Lightning, p. 105−115, Moscow.
19. Kirkinsky V. A., Khmelnikov A. I., 2016. Transmutation of elements in a deuterium telogenerator: preliminary results. Materials of the 22nd Russian Conference on Cold Transmutation of Cores of Chemical Elements and Ball Lightning, p. 116−123. Moscow.
20. Kirkinsky, VA, 2016. Nuclear reactions of the synthesis and transmutation of elements in the Earth’s core, Proceedings of the 22nd Russian Conference on Cold Nuclear Transmutation of Chemical Elements and Ball Lightning, p. 125−135, Moscow.
21. Kirkinsky V. A., 2016. Neutron and gamma radiation in a deuterium heat generator in connection with the problem of the mechanism of nuclear reactions at low energies Materials of the 24th Russian Conference on Cold Transmutation of Nuclei of Chemical Elements and Ball Lightning, p. 91−100, Moscow.
22. Kirkinsky V. A., Natural evidence of nuclear reactions of synthesis and transmutation of chemical elements in the Earth’s core. Materials of the 25th Russian Conference on Cold Transmutation of Cores of Chemical Elements and Ball Lightning, 2019 (in press), Moscow.
23. Kirkinsky V. А., On the physicochemical mechanism of global tectonic processes. Geology and Geophysics, 1985, No. 4, p.3−14.
24. Kirkinsky V. A., The Mechanism and Cyclicity of Global Tectogenesis. 1987, Novosibirsk, Science, 71 p.
25. Kirkinskii V. A., 1994. Tritium, helium and free neutrons. (The method of obtaining energy, as well as helium, tritium and free neutrons and devices for its implementation). International application published under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). PCT / RU93 / 00174 International Application Number. MKI G21 B1 / 00 G21 G4 / 02. International publication number WO 94/03902. 17.02.94, 30 s.
26. Kirkinsky V. A., 1996. Patent of the Russian Federation No. 2 056 656 for the invention “Method for producing free neutrons”. Priority date August 3, 1992 Published in the bulletin “Inventions, Trademarks” March 20, 1996, No. 8, part II, p. 267-268.
27. Kirkinsky V. A., Khmelnikov A. I., 2002, Device for generating energy. The patent of the Russian Federation № 2 195 717. The bulletin “Inventions, trademarks”, № 26.
28. Kirkinsky VA, Khmelnikov AI, 2006. Device for generating energy. Eurasian Patent No. 006525 In 1, Int. Class. G21B / 00, date posted 2006.02.24.
29. Kirkinskii V. A., Khmelnikov A. I., 2009. Energieеrzeugungseinrichtung (Power Producing Deviсe) Europaische Patentschrift 1 426 976 B1, Int. Cl. G21B 1/00 Publikation Date 12/23/2009, Patentblatt 2009/52.
* * *
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This is a re-post of an article published May 19, 2019 by Vitaly Alekseevich Kirkinsky at REGNUM and presented the 30th anniversary of the announcement of cold fusion.
Modifications to the cold fusion energy reactor designed by Tadahiko Mizuno have dramatically increased excess heat production. Thermal power output of the cell is now able to exceed the air-flow calorimeter’s heat removal capacity of 1 kilowatt.
When the input is 300 Watts heat, thermal power output is estimated to be between 1 – 3 kilowatts. This is based on the fact that Prof. Mizuno heated his room in Sapporo last winter with the cold fusion reactor, and he felt the room’s temperature to be as warm as when using a 3 kilowatt electric heater.
Tadahiko Mizuno’s R20 reactor heats a room in Sapporo. Graphic from Increased Excess Heat from Palladium Deposited on Nickel.
The jump in power occurred after he placed the heater that regulates the reaction at a new location inside of the cell, as well as new and different applications of pressure to the reactor.
But he also changed the way he made the active cathode material.
Nickel-mesh physically rubbed with palladium rod provides the reactant
Previously, to produce active nickel-mesh cathodes Prof. Mizuno, lead researcher at Hydrogen Engineering Application & Development HEAD, had been using glow discharge to “erode the center of the palladium electrode and sputter palladium on the nickel mesh”. This method could reliably generate 232 Watts excess heat with 248 Watts input, but it took months of applying the discharge to complete an active cathode. He needed a new method of applying palladium to the nickel-mesh.
Old cruciform design used glow discharge to prepare the cathode for reaction. Excess heat was reliable, but the whole process took months. Graphic from Excess Heat from Palladium Deposited on Nickel.
Electroless deposition gave good results, but the chemical solution was expensive. So, Prof. Mizuno started physical rubbing a palladium rod on the nickel-mesh to save money.
Three separate nickel mesh pieces are prepared by rubbing “vigorously” with a palladium rod. A careful WARNING is included: the procedure should take place in a glove box or appropriate facility as the fine particles of nickel dust are toxic and pose a health danger. Only those “skilled in the art” should attempt reproduction.
Using a glove box for safety, a palladium rod is rubbed one way, and then, 90 degrees the other way until 15-20 milligrams of palladium is deposited. Graphic from Increased Excess Heat from Palladium Deposited on Nickel.
The three mesh are carefully weighed during rubbing until 15-20 milligrams of palladium is deposited on each mesh. Then, the three mesh are stacked and rolled up. Inserted into the steel cylindrical reactor, they are unrolled inside, and spring-out against the cylinder walls.
Three palladium-rubbed nickel mesh against the interior walls of the reactor. Graphic from Increased Excess Heat from Palladium Deposited on Nickel.
This new method of cathode preparation is faster than glow discharge, however, first attempts to activate the mesh saw excess power results dropping to 12 Watts, about 12% excess heat, a marginal result.
Heat regulates the reaction
Then, in this last year, Prof. Mizuno changed the design. A sheath heater was installed inside the center of the cylindrical reactor R20.
Sheath heater now sits symmetrically in the center of the cylinder of the R20 design, heating the unit internally. Graphic from Increased Excess Heat from Palladium Deposited on Nickel.
That design change, along with “changes in the methods and pressures”, has “apparently enhanced the reaction, producing the results shown in Fig. 6.”
The R20 power results raw (in gray), and adjusted for heat loss through the walls of the calorimeter (in orange). Graphic from Increased Excess Heat from Palladium Deposited on Nickel.
Jed Rothwell was surprised at the result of moving the heater. He says, “I might have moved it inside just to reduce overall input power, but I had no idea that might increase output.”
Observations on this system has led to some important conclusions.
“First, the excess heat should be an exponential function of absolute temperature,” says Mizuno. “Second, the deuterium concentration in nickel affects the amount of excess heat. Third, the influence of deuterium pressure is small. Also, excessive heat generation requires treatment of the nickel surface. Also, there is a need for dissimilar metal layers. That’s all.”
The R20 is described as the “latest and most effective reactor”. After two hours of operation, it provides a stable ~250 Watts thermal excess power output when the input is a 50 Watt heater, and power generation can continue indefinitely.
However, an input of 300 Watts thermal will produce heat overwhelming the lab’s air-flow calorimeter heat removal capacity. There is an effort to test the R20 reactor in a bigger calorimeter in time to report definitive power output levels at ICCF-22 in September.
Air-flow calorimeter withstands scrutiny
The air flow calorimetry Prof. Mizuno used to measure the heat from the R20 has not changed since the report last year. Calorimeter specifications are described in detail in the previous paper Excess Heat from Palladium Deposited on Nickel [.pdf], which was presented at the ICCF-21 conference. Jed Rothwell, who has worked with Mizuno for over 30 years, invited the CMNS community to help find weak spots, and he has investigated every critique. So far, the calorimetry appears tight.
“Jed’s contribution is huge,” says Prof. Mizuno. “He looked at and analyzed my experimental results in detail, and gave me appropriate advice. He also corrected my dissertation, corrected my analysis errors and corrected sentences. I think Jed is a collaborator.”
Tadahiko Mizuno has shared specific details of these successful experiments in his papers and he is encouraging those “skilled in the art” – and with the proper equipment and protection from toxic nickel dust – to replicate the results. He promises to help replicators, too.
Jed Rothwell has heard from several people planning or starting replications. “Some of them seem to be trying new approaches,” he says. “I am following Dennis Cravens and one other closely. I think they are sticking to the protocol, except that one of the reactors is considerably smaller, so the mesh is only 2″ wide. I hope that has no effect on the results. We’ll see.”
Dr. Dennis Cravens, LENR researcher from New Mexico, is one of those who plans to replicate the active nickel-mesh cathode material process, though he’ll use a different calorimeter.
“Yes, I will be trying a replication in a general way,” he says. “But I have no real support in that effort so it may take some time. I have built an air-flow system using controlled temperature intake. But I have never been comfortable with air-flow systems after using one for checks of molten salt systems. They provide many “targets” for others to “throw darts at” and the questions and “advice” never ends. I am presently assembling a 1 meter long Seebeck for a future attempt.”
Hope is regulated with reality, and Jed Rothwell sums up the feeling of someone who has seen great news come and go, without a technology materializing.
“Once again, cold fusion barely survived. If this cannot be replicated, it may not survive. I do not know of any other approaches that could be widely replicated,” he says. “Without widespread replication, the field will surely die.”
“I hope this can be replicated.”
Says Prof. Mizuno, “I think the most important thing is to know how to generate the excess heat. In addition, it is important that there is a control factor.”
Earthquake almost ended research
Less than one year ago, Tadahiko Mizuno almost quit research after 29 years when a damaging earthquake hit the lab, destroying sensitive equipment.
“The earthquake in the early morning of September 6 was awful”, recalls Tadahiko Mizuno. “The damage was severe; the central part of the SEM is not usually fixed in order to not sway around from earthquakes. This caused a disaster, and the central electron tube hit the surrounding stand and broke. Repair cost is a lot of money. Other than that, machinery was broken. I was unable to work for several months.”
Dennis Cravens started a GoFundMe page and brought the CMNS community together to fundraise just enough cash to clean-up a bit, and continue operations.
“It was an outpouring of help by many in the field,” says Dr. Cravens. “We all have had set backs and often feel alone, alienated, ridiculed and sometimes think of giving up. If we can help each other, we just may have a chance to change the world in a good way.”
As a thank-you, Prof. Mizuno gave small reactor to the community, though not the new nickel-mesh version. Sindre Zeiner-Gundersen, who has been getting his PhD while working with Drs. Leif Holmlid and Sveinn Ólafsson on ultra-dense hydrogen, is now in preparation to test the reactor.
Says Zeiner-Gundersen, “Mizuno is one of the leading scientists in this area and brings great research, results and provides data to the field. He is a true pioneer. The reactor I have is a closed system and should produce excess heat just by applying deuterium and heat to the materials inside. ”
“I’m finishing the last programming on calorimetry and construction of the calorimetry system now, so I will be testing this fall.”
Of course, the small funding from the CMNS community has ran out this past February and Mizuno says, “Now I am testing with debt. The amount is 30 million yen. If this remains the case, I have to leave the company in a couple of months.”
But if replications confirm the kilowatt effect, funding won’t be a problem, and Prof. Mizuno isn’t waiting around. He’s put reactors that he calls HIKOBOSHI in the hands of users, for other labs to independently test.
“I rented and sold 12 CF furnaces to Japan and overseas. They are collecting data and having a lot of data, I am going to announce the data.”
“I have named these reactors as HIKOBOSHI. This means the star Altair. I also like that I feel the meaning in Japanese, which is to “flood the lights”. Hiko is also the last kanji notation of my name.”
Had Tadahiko Mizuno not continued research, this breakthrough bump in kilowatt power would have been unrealized. Now when the world needs a zero-carbon option, the HIKOBOSHI reactor is a step closer to fulfilling that mission.
Dennis Cravens says, “You are guided by your experience and your gut and I only hope that others follow their dreams and come to a greater understanding of the process and possibly, just possibly, find the key to a reliable working system. “
The 22nd International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science on the 30th Anniversary of the Announcement of Cold Fusion in Assisi, Italy. To register, go to https://iscmns.org/iccf22/
Sergei Tcvetkov has been experimenting with unique LENR systems using titanium cathodes to generate nuclear products and excess heat since 1989. He and his team had been testing materials suitable for spaceflight when he heard the news.
Sergei Tcvetkov, physicist and nuclear engineer, developing a LENR-based titanium-deuterium reactor.
“First, we had very interesting circumstances at the time of Fleischmann and Pons’ press conference”, he says. “We were working on a flight to Mars. We created a hydrogen complex of high parameters, i.e. working directly with hydrogen. It was a large complex that was designed to test various space materials. The complex is a few material science machines that worked on the rupture of metals in a hydrogen gas medium. The material of the nozzles from which the heated hydrogen should fly-out at a temperature of 2000 degrees and a pressure of up to 400 atmospheres. (Nozzles – these are the devices through which the rocket is released from a rocket engine fuel.) And that’s why we had a lot of materials that we could use for our project on cold fusion. This allowed us to assemble the existing plant within three weeks. A photo of this installation is presented in the REGNUM report.”
Beloyarsk NPP in Zarechny, where Sergei Tcvetkov and colleagues began work on cold fusion reactor in April 1989.
“Secondly, in addition, by this time we were engaged in materials of biological protection of nuclear reactors based on titanium hydride. So we were able to saturate the titanium with hydrogen. I want to draw special attention to the fact that work with hydrogen is an explosive type of work, and we had already mastered the rules of safe work with hydrogen.”
“We had a lot of specialists at our research Institute who worked at the research reactor as we did. We had specialists in radiation dosimetry, specialists in calorimetry of irradiated materials, i.e., we had a very wide set of experts and devices. Even the absence of deuterium gas couldn’t stop us. We ordered it in Siberia and it was delivered to us in three weeks.”
“From the very beginning, we decided that in order to obtain cold fusion reactions inside metals, it is necessary to saturate this metal with deuterium as much as possible. Because we had titanium hydride, so we decided to use these samples that we had ready for biological protection. We heated them and removed the hydrogen from them by vacuum pumping. Then we prepared high-pressure deuterium and fed it to this pure titanium.”
“As a result, we were surrounded by neutron detectors, gamma detectors, measured neutrons, gamma radiation at the same time. Neutron detectors were based on Helium-3 gas-discharge. Plus, we used solid-state neutron detectors to measure neutrons – they were based mica-Muscovite.”
“The values then at the first installation were measured about 500 neutrons per second. Now, at this point in time, we measure about ten to the fifth power of neutrons per second. But it’s impulsive. These are short pulses of the order of 200-300 microseconds. It’s not constant radiation. This is not cyclic radiation – it is burst-like radiation.”
A research summary on the titanium-deuterium system is presented in Initiation of the Cold Fusion Reactions by Air Components published in ICCF-16 Proceedings JCMNS Vol. 8 (pgs. 23-28).
In his Regnum article, Tcvetkov described a reaction in his work where tritium and a proton combine to give Helium-4 along with a gamma and 19.814 MeV of energy. Ruby asked him to elaborate on how this is different than the palladium-deuterium systems, where two deuterium nuclei join to give Helium-4.
“These reactions are misunderstood. Talking about the reaction of tritium plus proton to helium-4 is in the sense that this reaction gives the maximum amount of energy per reaction between the isotopes of hydrogen. And we consider the d-d reaction when tritium plus proton is obtained. It gives four Mega Electron-Volts of energy. As a result, Helium-4 is not obtained. If you’ve read Fleischmann and Pons’ paper, you won’t see Helium-4 there as a result of their reactions.
“I believe that helium is formed here in the same way it does in McKubre’s work, due to the cascade of nuclear reactions, because the same tritium and protons are produced by the d-d reaction of very high energies. There are still reaction products such as Helium-3 and neutrons. They can interact with high probability and that these reactions will give the Helium-4 without high-energy gamma radiation.”
“And if we consider hydrogen and Nickel, then there is a slightly different mechanism: first, deuterium is formed from hydrogen. Then the deuterium by the reaction with the formation of tritium, Helium-3, neutrons, protons. This is my view on these processes.”
The first reactor for the production of cold fusion reactions on deuterated titanium, designed in the SF NIKIET in 1989. Graphic: Sergei Tcvetkov
Sergei Tcvetkov’s early research focused mostly on measuring nuclear products and he did not look for transmutations. He says that, “all I had to do was register neutrons and excess heat. As a nuclear physicist, I understand that neutrons, which are formed as a result of these d-d reactions, they interact with the surrounding metal atoms, and from these reactions of neutrons and atoms of metals and impurities, we get the transmutation of other elements.”
Read Possibility of Using Cold Fusion for the Transmutation of Nuclear Waste Products [.pdf] by Sergei A. Tcvetkov.
In the 1990s, commercial efforts began to try to develop a technology based on the cold fusion reaction. One of those companies was ENECO, then headed by Frank Jager. Sergei Tcvetkov worked as an engineer with ENECO.
“They came to Yekaterinburg in 1993 with Oleg Finadeev and met with academician Alexei Nikolaevich Baraboshkin at the Institute of High-Temperature Electrochemistry in Yekaterinburg. They signed a contract to study how strontium cerates interact with deuterium. ENECO started paying for the work of this group. I was invited to this group as a research engineer. During the year we have achieved good results and detected neutrons; good enough with saturation of strontium cerates by deuterium. We also worked with molten salts by electrolysis with palladium cathode.”
Read Excess Heat in Molten Salts of (LiCl-KCl) + (LiD + LiF) at the Titanium Anode During Electrolysis [.pdf] by S.A. Tcvetkov, E.S. Filatov, and V.A. Khokhlov.
“These results have been reported at several international conferences in Hawaii (ICCF-4) and in Monte Carlo (ICCF-5). Then, together with ENECO, we applied for a patent on the source of neutrons in the interaction of deuterium with strontium cerates. This application is in my report. But in May 1995, we had to terminate this contract, because there was a prospect that our Russian Academy of Sciences would finance a large project on cold fusion. However, at the end of May academician Baraboshkin died unexpectedly. And we were left without a contract with ENECO and without a project with the Academy of Sciences. So, that’s how we ended our collaboration with ENECO. Yes, it was another project on cold fusion in Russia that failed to start. After that, we did not have a single project that would be financed from the Russian budget.”
ICCF-4 Proceedings EPRI Part 3 [.pdf] (pgs 5-1 through 5-7)
ICCF-5 Proceedings Part 2 [.pdf] (pgs. 201-208 and 227-232)
By 2012, Tcvetkov was working in Nuremberg, Germany and was able to attend the September conference in Zurich that year organized by Andrea Rossi.
“At this conference I met our Russian student Irina Uzikova, whom Andrea Rossi invited to his first demonstration of the MegaWatt device in October 2011. She introduced me to Andrea Rossi. I then gave him congratulations for raising the interest for the cold fusion in the public, with his works and demonstrations. I took his autograph, as you can see in the photo in the report.”
Asked if he believes Rossi can make big heat, Tcvetkov asserts, “I’m sure of it, just as I’m sure of the excess heat I get.”
While nuclear products have been the focus of many of Tcvetkov’s measurements, excess heat experiments in his Estonian lab generated several hundred Watts.
Ninth experimental setup cold fusion in Estonia 2018. Graphic: Sergei Tcvetkov
In the Estonian lab, “The first thing I did was repeat the technology of making my samples out of titanium, and increased the mass of these samples. Then I reproduced the experimental set-up and got results that were very good for excess heat – hundreds of watts, about 500 watts, which I managed to get for over four hours.”
The success of the titanium reactor prompted Sergei and his group to apply to for a patent.
“In 2012, when we had started work in Nuremberg, Germany, we issued and filed an application for a European patent: Method and device of nuclear fusion. After long corrections, additions, and work with this application, in 2014, it was published in the collection of applications of the European Patent Office.”
“It’s been a long trial. We received objections every year. The result of this examination is that we have not yet been granted a patent, and we continue our objections to this.”
“Once again, at the beginning of March, we submitted new changes to this patent and are currently waiting for the next examination. We hope now that since the US has adopted the classification of cold fusion reactors, maybe the European Patent Office will reconsider its attitude to our application and give us a patent. There’s been no response from them yet. They have six months to answer, so we’re waiting.”
He’s got so much data from the German and Estonian labs, there’s a lot of data analysis to do. But right now, he’s putting a project together to develop the titantium-deuterium reactor, and he needs investment.
“I am currently creating a Design Bureau for the development and manufacture of reactors based on the interaction of titanium and deuterium. To do this, I need a good investor. Last year I applied to the American organization ARPA-E, but unfortunately I did not get a positive result from them and they refused to finance me. The next such open competition they will have in two years.”
“As I said before with the death of academician Baraboshkin, all Russian state funding of these groups stopped. Those groups which continued to work, they worked with financing from abroad or at the expense of private financing. But private funding is weak and capricious: it begins quickly and ends quickly. Even in Estonia, the lab operated for four months and then funding ended. “
“So we’re in the same situation that Edmund Storms is in; we can only work on the pension that we earned in our previous career. But our pension does not compare with the American pension in any way! We have limited funds and that is why everything is being done slowly.”
But Sergei Tcvetkov continues to build the new titanium reactor.
“I see that this method of obtaining energy is promising, it is real and humanity needs it. Humanity needs to tame the energy of the Sun on Earth. This is cold fusion.”
