Published by World Scientific, Life at the Center of the Energy Crisis: A Technologist’s Search for a Black Swan by Dr. George H. Miley describes “the story of the author’s work and struggles in the field of energy research.”
Dr. Miley is Professor Emeritus at the University Of Illinois Urbana-Champagne (UIUC) in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, and, he was one of the few plasma scientists who considered seriously the possibility of nuclear reactions taking place in a solid metal at low-temperatures after the announcement of Drs. Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons.
As Director of the Fusion Studies Lab at UIUC, he has engaged students (though he will say his students engaged him!) in cold fusion research, also called low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) since 1989.
When virtually all other mainstream scientific journals refused to accept them, he as a founding editor of the American Nuclear Society’s (ANS) Fusion Science and Technology was singular in allowing publication of blacklisted cold fusion research papers.
From the World Scientific site:
“The author’s experience in the field spans from work with Admiral Rickover and the Nuclear Navy to research with NASA designing propulsion for spacecraft to travel to Mars. The book provides insights into the differences between nuclear research done during the Cold War by the two superpowers, and offers a commentary on the flaws in each system with hope for change in the future. The book also provides a look into the development of the nuclear engineering program at the University of Illinois from the author’s years as a professor and an administrator.”
The recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Miley has been a Guggenheim Fellow and held a senior NATO fellowship. He holds six patents, and has most recently been involved in a new-energy start-up LENUCO, a company formed to develop a heat-source for energy production based on metallic-hydride reactions.
Earlier this year, LENUCO lost a crowd-voting contest in a bid for a presentation spot before venture capitalists held by Future Energy. The LEN-GEN Module followed the design Miley presented before rocket scientists at last year’s NETS conference. He continues to develop plasma solutions for multiple applications including space-drive with Nuclear Plasma Laboratories Associates, Inc., another company based in Illinois.
The book’s Foreword is by Dr. Heinz Hora, Professor Emeritus of University of New South Wales and long-time collaborator with Dr. Miley on theoretical models of LENR. In my interview with Dr. Miley during the 2012 NETS conference, I profiled some of their work.
Table of Contents
Foreword [.pdf]
Why a “Black Swan”?
Living at the Center of the Energy Crisis
Timeline and Apology
Early Days and Searching for a Starting Path [.pdf]
Burnable Poison Control for Nuclear Submarine Reactors
Nuclear Pulse Propagation and Fission Reactor Kinetics
Nuclear Pumped Laser (NPL) Research
Direct Electron Beam Pumped Laser
Advanced Lasers
Alpha Particle Effects in Thermonuclear Fusion Devices
Alternate Fusion Concepts
Advanced Fuel Fusion and Direct Energy Conversion
Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF)
Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) Fusion
Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR)
Hydrogen Economy and Fuel Cells
Fusion Propulsion and Space Colonization
Nuclear Batteries
Computation and Theory
Nuclear Power Plant Safety and the Illinois Low-Level Waste Site
Teaching, Education, and University Administration
Creation of a Small Company, NPL Associates, Inc.
Where Am I in the Search? What Have I Found?
Concluding Comments
Timeline of Events
The contents are suitable for undergraduates and PhDs, as well as anyone in the public interested in the history of the field.
Buy George H. Miley’s book from World Scientific or from Amazon
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