Yasuhiro Iwamura on the Cold Fusion Now! podcast

Dr. Yasuhiro Iwamura is the guest on the Cold Fusion Now! podcast with Ruby Carat. Dr. Iwamura is a Research Professor in the Condensed Matter Nuclear Science division at the Research Center for Electron

Photon Science at Tohoku University. He has been dividing his time there between engineering a second Metal Hydrogen Energy generator with Clean Planet Inc. , as well as continuing his signature transmutation work with Mitsubishi.

Listen to Yasuhiro Iwamura on the Cold Fusion Now! podcast with Ruby Carat here on our Podcast page.

After graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1990 with a degree in Nuclear Engineering, he received a research scientist position with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. “After graduate school, I entered fundamental research laboratory of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. At that time, Japan had a good economy, and fundamental research was very active,” says Dr. Iwamura.

“I had been interested in cold fusion and seeking a chance to propose a research theme related to cold fusion. Fortunately, ICCF-3 was held at Nagoya in Japan in October 1992, and I attended it. I talked with many researchers at the conference and I was convinced that cold fusion was real. So I proposed a research plan to my laboratory and it was approved.”

“At the beginning of my research, we mainly did gas-loading and electrolysis type experiments, and finally we reached the permeation in this transmutation method.”

Nuclear transmutation work is replicated

The nuclear transmutations method developed by Dr. Iwamura and his team at Mitsubishi uses a host material described as a “nano-structured thin-film composed of palladium and calcium oxide and palladium substrate, with a target element” then planted between the layers.

A typical target element of Cesium is then transmuted to Praseodymium. Barium has been transmuted into samarium and tungsten into platinum.

Dr. Iwamura cannot explain the mechanism of the reaction behind these results, but he does reveal an experimental fact that should give theorists a clue in trying to construct a model of the reaction.

“We observe 2 or 4 or 6 deuterons make fusion for the target materials. The exact mechanism for the transmutation is not clear, of course, but I speculate that two deuterons are related to helium.”

“A helium atom consists of two protons and two neutrons, and two deuterons consists of two protons and two neutrons. So I suspect that this kind of mechanism exists in this type of transmutation reaction.”

Dr. Iwamura believes that a “very small amount of foreign element like impurity plays a very important role to induce condensed matter nuclear reactions”, too.

In the podcast, he gives an example. “In the case of our type of transmutation reactions, if we put calcium oxide onto the palladium thin-film, near the surface area, transmutation reactions occur, but if we use palladium only, we cannot observe a transmutation reaction.”

“It’s just a speculation, but I speculate that the interface between the foreign element, like calcium oxide, and the main element like the palladium, at the near surface plays a very important role. The mechanism is not so clear, but I suspect this kind of mechanics is behind condensed matter nuclear reactions.”

Transmutation work provides method for radioactive waste cleanup

Yasuhiro Iwamura continues the Mitsubishi transmutation work at Tohoku with support from both Mitsubishi and Clean Planet, Inc. Clean Planet CEO Hideki Yoshino has organized several collaborative efforts with academia and industry in Japan with the hopes of engineering an ultra-clean energy technology, and, ridding the globe of the tons radioactive waste by transmuting it to benign materials.

Dr. Iwamura says, “So even though I’ve moved to Tohoku University from Mitsubishi Heavy industries, I continue to make transmutation experiments using radioactive isotope Cesium-133 at Tohoku University.”

“If this type of transmutation reaction can be applied to radioactive isotopes, it will be possible to get rid of the radioactivity of nuclear waste. The transmutation of a radioactive element is beneficial to society, because many nuclear reactors are working all over the world and generate toxic radioactive waste, and getting rid of toxic radioactivity from Fukushima area in Japan is also beneficial to our society.”

This transmutation work was replicated by other institutes such as Toyota R&D, and is still in its early research stages, but the effort, along with the MHE excess heat project, will benefit greatly from the recent shares of Clean Planet bought by the Mitsubishi Estate Company.

“The stronger financial base of Clean Planet is beneficial to my Tohoku team and to make wider choices towards commercialization”, says Iwamura. “So of course it’s very good, and we’re very grateful to the Mitsubishi Estate companies.”

Of course the commercialization effort includes MHE generator, too.

MHE energy profiles replicated with same samples

“My colleague Ito and I did not have much experience with excess heat experiments before we moved to Tohoku University, because our work at Mitsubishi Heavy Industry was only transmutations. So it was a good chance to learn excess heat generation experiments using the MHE apparatus funded by the Japanese government organization NEDO, the New Energy Development Organization.”

The original MHE generator is located at Kobe University, and is the work of Dr. Akito Takahashi, Dr. Akira Kitamura, as well as a team of scientists and graduate students.


Read our interview with Dr. Akito Takahashi on the Cold Fusion Now! blog here.


A second Metal Hydrogen Energy device at Tohoku Univeristy designed to replicate results of the first MHE generator located at Kobe University. Graphic: Yasuhiro Iwamura ICCF21 presentation file

“The objective of our collaborative research is to clarify the existence of the anomalous heat generative phenomenon and to confirm reproducibility of the phenomenon. For the purpose, we did not change the design of the experimental apparatus intentionally. So, the second Metal Hydrogen Energy device located at Tohoku University is nearly equal to the first apparatus at Kobe University.”

“Of course we have some different points, for example our experimental apparatus is equipped with a larger number of measurement points, and some couples in our apparatus are slightly different to the first one, but basically, we did not change the design of the experimental apparatus intentionally to show the reproducibility of this phenomenon.”

Dr. Iwamura presented the latest second MHE generator results at ICCF-21 conference reporting excess heat results that were replicated by other labs using the same samples.


Watch Dr. Yasuhiro Iwamura’s presentation at ICCF-21 here on the ICCF-21 Youtube channel. Follow the link to download the presentation file in .pdf.


“Anomalous excess heat generations were observed for all the active samples at elevated temperature, about 150C-350C degrees Centigrade, and the amount of anomalous heat generation per hydrogen atom ranges from 10 eV per hydrogen to 100 eV per hydrogen or deuterium, which could not be explained by any known chemical process.”

Excess heat results for one sample run on the second MHE generator. Graphic: Yasuhiro Iwamura ICCF21 presentation file.

Also, there were “coincident burst-like increased pressure -and gas temperature- events of the reaction chamber, which suggested sudden energy release in the reaction chamber.”

“These results were observed for all experiments using the copper-nickel-zirconium material with H2 gas. Also, very large local bursts of energy release were obtained as evidenced by the broken zirconia beads used as a medium for the nano-particles.”

“Excess heat experiments using the same material at Kobe and Tohoku Universities showed similar experimental results, and the qualitative reproducibility between Kobe and Tohoku was very good.”

Close communication is key to successful replication

The success of the Japanese LENR research program is unmatched by any other country on the globe, and while support for LENR is not universal within governmental organizations, the continued positive gains provided by the researchers there has made it easier for mainstream organizations to lend a helping hand in a country with big energy needs.

In the cross-disciplinary field of condensed matter nuclear science, collaborative research requires the coordination of scientists from different fields, and Dr. Iwamura feels that “good and frequent communication between Japanese groups is the key” to successful replications.

“For example, I know Professor Takahashi and Professor Kitamura very well, and I ask them frequently about experimental device and method in detail. And during the NEDO project, our research groups often held meetings, and exchanged detailed information. So communication is the key, I think.”


Listen to Yasuhiro Iwamura on the Cold Fusion Now! podcast with Ruby Carat here on our Podcast page.


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Yasuhiro Iwamura to focus on nuclear waste clean-up

Title photo: Japanese Cold Fusion Society Meeting 15 participants.

A new research venture has launched between Tohoku University and Clean Planet Inc. in Japan.

Leading the research team is Dr. Yasuhiro Iwawura, who has left Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, along with Dr. Takehiko Itoh, after years of work demonstrating nuclear transmutations in cold fusion environments, in one case turning Cesium into Praseodymium.

From a March 30 press release:

Clean Planet Inc. and The Research Center for Electron Photon Science of Tohoku University agreed to establish the collaborative research division – Condensed
Matter Nuclear Reaction Division at Tohoku University.

In this division, fundamental research on condensed matter nuclear reaction, R&D on energy generation and nuclear waste decontamination will be performed.

The members of the new division consist of researchers of Tohoku University, Clean Planet Inc. and HEAD (Hydrogen Engineering Application & Development Company).

Yasuhiro Iwamura and Takehiko Itoh left the research center of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at the end of March 2015 to complete the formation of this illustrious team.

This new division is made up of the following members:

Yasuhiro Iwamura, Jirohta Kasagi and Hidetoshi Kikunaga (Condensed Matter Nuclear Reaction Division, Research Center for Electron Photon Science, Tohoku University, Japan)
Tadahiko Mizuno (HEAD, Japan)
Hideki Yoshino, Takehiko Itoh and Masanao Hattori (Clean Planet Inc., Japan)

Hideki Yoshino at 2014 CF/LANR Colloquium at MIT
Hideki Yoshino at 2014 CF/LANR Colloquium at MIT
Hideki Yoshino, the Founder and CEO of Clean Planet Inc, presented results of recent work with Tadahiko Mizuno at the 2014 CF/LANR Colloquium at MIT.

Listen to Replicable Model for Controlled Nuclear Reaction using Metal Nanoparticles [first few minutes of audio missing] [.pdf] [.mp3] [video]
 

 

In an article Commercial Developments presented at 2014 MIT Cold Fusion Conference, author Robert Paulson wrote of Clean Planet:

At the conference, Clean Planet showed off their proof of concept reactor which operates at a COP of 1.9 as well as some other reactors being built which are made to operate at the 1kw and 10kw power level. Their reactor is simple and an amazing spectacle to watch. Using normal nickel mesh, they create a brilliant plasma to sputter the surface of the metal, cleaning it and creating surface nanostructures which kick off the Cold Fusion effect. Preparing their material inside of the reactor may solve some of the material consistency issues other commercial groups are struggling with.

They have a well equipped lab with gamma and neutron radiation detection, although they have not seen any consistent hard radiation outside their reactor during excess heat, they have some some occasional bursts.

Clean Planet also presented mass spectroscopy results which confused many scientists and has started a wave of speculation regarding theory. In the mass spectroscopy results, higher masses decreased during excess heat at the expense of lower masses, opposite to what would be expected of fusion events. Clean Planet was quick to point out that these results should be seen as preliminary, their equipment can not separate deuterium and helium so until their outside gas analysis comes back they don’t have solid information.

Japan is in dire need of this technology and has historically been supportive of cold fusion research, we can expect Japan to have a serious presence in the Cold Fusion commercialization race. While Mizuno skyped in, his group was represented at the conference by multiple businessmen, they look to have all the resources they need and attracting funding and talent should not be an issue. This is a company to keep an eye on, they could quickly develop a foothold at the head of this field.

MIT Conference video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB_MRUX4mo0

Public-private partnerships have long been a feature of Japanese LENR research, with many academic experimentalists and theoreticians working with industry to both research LENR science and develop applications. Located in Sendai, Miyagi in the Tohoku Region, Japan, Tohoku University is the third oldest Imperial University in Japan.

5-Yasuhiro-Iwamura-IMG_0652Yasuhiro Iwawura, together with Mitsuru Sakano, Shizuma Kuribayashi, and Takehiko Itoh, had announced plans to work with Tohoku University ten years ago in a paper Observation of Nuclear Transmutation Induced by Deuterium Permeation through Pd Complex published by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. Technical Review. Co-author Itoh will join Iwamura on this new project associated with Clean Planet, Inc.

The Japanese government will provide funding for the nuclear waste decontamination research project named “Reduction and Resource Recycle of High Level Radioactive Wastes with Nuclear Transformation” through the ImPACT Program, a Japanese national research program.

Watch Yasuhiro Iwamura present “Recent Advances in Deuterium Permeation Induced Transmutation Experiments Using Nano-Structured Pd/CaO/Pd Multilayer Thin Film” at ICCF-18:

Listen to Yasuhiro Iwamura present an updated version of Deuterium Permeation Induced Transmutation Expt. using Nanostructured Pd/CaO/Pd Multilayer Thin Film at the 2014 CF/LANR Colloquium at MIT. [.pdf] [.mp3] [video]

 

Mitsubishi was also featured in Paulson’s review:

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries research program, headed by Dr. Yasuhiro Iwamura had some big developments since their last presentation 8 months ago at ICCF18. They are focusing on technology which maximizes transmutation using a gas permeation process, previously reporting that they were able to use the cold fusion effect to transmute cesium to praseodymium, essentially producing a valuable material from a radioactive waste.

While transmutation in this field has been a proven reality, a well funded drive to engineer this effect could lead to enormous advances in many fields of technology. Transmutation could solve both issues with nuclear contamination as well as material scarcity, including exotic isotopes.

A research program at NRL failed to replicate these results. At ICCF18 Dr. David Kidwell spoke the same day as Dr. Iwamura about NRL’s failure to replicate the results, he was overly aggressive and had a very mocking tone, accusing them of improper use of equipment, sloppy work and accidentally spiking samples after apparently finding praseodymium contamination in their lab. While the motives behind the NRL bullying were foggy, they ate crow pie a few months later when Toyoto affiliated labs published results showing that they had replicated the transmutation effects in this experiment.

MHI originally said they used gas permeation through a palladium film ion-implanted with cesium to trigger the effect and transmute the cesium to praseodymium. At MIT, Dr. Iwamura showed new developments in their transmutation research; they started developing modular experiments so they can scale up the device to commercial levels.

Dr. Iwamura revealed that they had began hybrid electrochemical experiments where they are using cesium in a liquid solution. This may not only be more effective due to the known electrochemical methods of triggering the effect, but it will also have engineering benefits such as cooling and scalability.

This is an enormous breakthrough if it can transmute Cesium in a liquid solution at high yields. Considering water contaminated with cesium is the main contamination at Fukushima, this technology could not only clean up the radiation but also generate heat as a side product. The potential here is enormous, not only for Japan, but for the world, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is quickly moving forward.

MIT Conference video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzZl9l8nn1c

The mission of the new Center is to develop a clean, safe and abundant form of energy for our global community. The transmutation effect of the cold fusion environment offers a chance to clean up the mistakes of the past, as well as begin again with an ultra-green source of power.

Clean Planet also says “We are determined to bring the application models from this division to the market before the Tokyo Olympics in 2020,” and with the team of researchers on board, they just might win that race.

Cold Fusion Now!

Related Links

JCF-15 pairs Experiment and Theory

Industry and academic partnerships report from JCF-14 meeting

Japanese Cold Fusion Research Society meeting papers released

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