Cold Fusion Energy Science
Atomic Power
Experiments
1996. We are on the way to ICCF6. Nephew Scott Chubb and your author have our transparencies ready for our talks. We will both be making presentations. We are headed for a luxury hotel on the Island of Hokaido in northern Japan. The luxury hotel looks out over a crater lake with embedded island, and onward towards the south coast of the island towards the rest of Japan. In Detroit we get on our plane for the big hop to the Tokyo airport, from which we will fly to Sapporo, which is the main city on Hokaido. Hokaido is a wintry island, on which the winter Olympics had recently taken place.
Our plane roared into the air. Within 20 minutes the pilot made an announcement. We would be returning to Detroit. They had shut down one engine. It had caught on fire. We would be flying around in circles, dumping gasoline onto the Michigan countryside before returning to the Detroit airport. An hour later, we descended and landed back in Detroit. Fire engines were lined up on both sides of the runway. We coasted to a stop, and began a long wait. After an hour or so the First Class passengers were permitted to debark the plane, but the rest of us had to wait several hours. Finally, we left the plane, but without our luggage. The Airline had found places for us to stay. The expectation was that the problem would be fixed and we would be off the next day.
Not so. It wasn't until afternoon that we were told that they were bringing our bags to the terminal and we could pick them up. The meeting on Hokaido had already begun. Fortunately, our talks were not scheduled near the start of the program. But the Airline had not found another transoceanic airplane to take us to Japan. By rescheduling we obtained seats on a suitable plane for our flight. Scott and I rescheduled and eventually reached Hokaido two days late.
The luxury hotel was a long way from the Sapporo airport, and all the busses that had been scheduled to carry attendees to the hotel were long since gone. By taking 2 passenger trains and a long and expensive taxi ride we finally arrived at ICCF6.
By the time we reached the hotel, we had missed some of the main talks, but arrived in time to make our theory presentations and to see many of our fusion friends. ICCF6, like all the later cold fusion conferences, was like a reunion of those that were still committed to finding out how cold fusion works. A lot of history had transpired. We were the survivors who somehow managed to continue research in the field. One reward was that we got to see beautiful Lake Toya and stay for a few days in a fabulous hotel. Some of the attendees are shown in Figures 2.2,1, 2.2,2 and 2.2,3, and 2.2,4. 
Fig. 2.2,1 Physicist Mel Eisner made pioneering observations of cold fusion heat for Phillips Petroleum Co., shown here with daughters. He and the author were fellow students in physics.
Fig. 2.2,2 Solid state physicist Scott Chubb and nuclear physicist Tom Passell after exchanging views. 
Fig. 2.2,3 Professor Yoshiaki Arata and Mrs. Arata enjoy view from hotel. They traveled to northern Hokaido before returning to Osaka.
Fig. 2.2,4 Drs. Arata and Zhang standing next to Arata Hall at Osaka University.
The most important paper in Proc. ICCF6 is the paper presented by Arata and Zhang. The paper shows 3 excess heat results for 3 electrolysis runs using nanocrystal palladium (Pd-black) contained within a hermetically sealed vessel with a palladium cylinder wall, a so-called DS cathode. The run histories are plots of fusion power vs. time. A copy of the 3 run histories is contained in Supplement 1. (See footnote on page 17.) The upper left history labeled Fig. 8 showed heat production at an average of about 7 W of fusion heat over a period of more that 190 days from 3 grams of Pd black. In the study labeled Fig. 9 the deuterium pressure inside the DS cathode was metered during heat production. The inter-granular gas pressure reached 800 atmosphere. The level of heat power was about the same as in Figure 8. These runs repeated the excess heat production that had been reported in 3 earlier experiments.
The A-Z Pd-black results contrast with disappointing ICCF6 studies reported by McKubre et al., who used solid palladium metal cathodes. The McKubre team tested 13 Pd rod cathodes and observed significant excess heat in only one. He discovered a suddenly deuterium deloading phenomenon in which the cathode suddenly lost deuterium from all its surface. To create conditions for cold fusion in bulk Pd metal one must create D/Pd ratios that correspond to highly non-equilibrium conditions. These conditions correspond to pressures far greater than can be achieved in the lab. It has subsequently been found by Chernov et al. (1999) and Tyurin and Chernov (2002), working at Tomsk University in Russia, that interstitial deuterium in metals store excitation energy that can suddenly be released locally and almost instantly spread throughout the metal bulk. When the excitation energy reaches the metal surface, it causes release of the above-equilibrium volumes of deuterium. This energy storage process does not exist in pure metals. It only occurs in hydrides and deuterides. The stored energy causes a local instability to produce rapid loss of gas from the whole surface of the bulk metal, which is what McKubre observed. This problem does not exist within the A-Z nanometal material. The nuclear reactive deuterium created by the A-Z protocol is almost in reversible chemical equilibrium with the intergranular deuterium gas which fills the gaps between their nanopowder grains. The difference between operating a system near reversible chemical equilibrium vs. operating a system that is maintained by highly irreversible chemistry makes the nanometal approach a preferred path toward commercial heat production. A-Z have subsequently achieved the steady heat production that is needed for practical heat production (2002).
1996. A-Z report an excess heat run that produced an average fusion heat release of 7 W from 3 grams of Pd nanopowder throughout a period of almost 200 days. Multiply by 1000 and you get 7 kW using 3 kg of metal nanopowder for 200 days. 7 kW is a home heater.
7 Watts is not a high power. But deuterium fuel contains 20 million times as much energy per pound as charcoal. So a cold fusion heater would provide 7 kW of heat for 20,000 times longer than the run time of the A-Z experiment that provided a steady 7 Watts.
It is interesting to compare a 7-kW home heater running on charcoal with 7-kW cold fusion heater fueled by deuterium gas. The heat of combustion of charcoal is
7.26 kcal per gram of charcoal,
which is 7.26 x 10^3 gram-cal per gram charcoal
which is 3.04 x 10^4 Watt-sec per gram charcoal,
which is 3.04 x 10^7 Watt sec per kg (2.2 lbs) of charcoal,
which is 3.04 x 10^8 Watt sec per 10-kg (22 lbs) of charcoal,
which is 3.04 x 10^5 kW-sec per 10 kg of charcoal.
We have used the mechanical energy equivalent to heat which is:
4.18 Joules (Watt-second) = 1 gram-calorie.
A day is 8.6 x 10^4 seconds, so the 22-pounds of charcoal would provide 1 kW of heat power for 3.520 days, which means 0.503 days at 7 kW.
The deuterium fueled cold fusion heater provides 20 million times as much energy per kg as charcoal. Multiplying by 20 million, the 3.04 x 10^7 Watt-sec per kg of charcoal becomes 6.08 x 10^14 Watt-sec per kg deuterium.
The fuel energy density is 6.08 x 10^14 Watt-sec per kg of D2 gas,
which is 6.08 x 10^11 kW-sec per kg of D2 gas,
which is 6.08 x 10^8 kW-sec per gram of D2 gas,
which means one gram of D2 gas would run a 7-kW heater run for 8.69 x 10^7 seconds
A year is 3.16 x 107 seconds, so 1 gram of D2 gas would run the 7-kW heater for 2.75 years. A cubic foot = 28.3 liters. A cubic foot of D2 gas at 1 atmosphere of pressure has a mass of 5.05 grams, which would run the heater for 13.9 years. One cubic foot at 10 atmospheres would run the heater for 139 years. People will buy their heaters with a lifetime supply of fuel.
Dr. Arata had invited your author to visit his lab at Osaka University. After leaving the conference he flew to Osaka. Arata was delayed a few days in Hokaido, but YueChang Zhang returned to Osaka and became the author's guide. She showed him some local sites, including an amazing moat-protected fortress palace of a historic warlord who united southern Japan. The next day she took him to the A-Z lab on the Osaka University campus.
The A-Z cold fusion program is located in 2 buildings on the Osaka University campus. Arata's office is in Arata Hall, which was named in his honor for earlier work he had done in plasma fusion and welding technology. Among his many awards, he had received the Japan Academy Prize in 1985, and had been elected Member of Japan Academy in 1998, and Fellow of the American Society of Metals (ASM) in 1993. The A Z lab is in an Osaka University research building down the street.
The A-Z lab filled a big room on the second floor of a University laboratory building. Next to the lab's entrance door was as sign which read:
Solid-State Plasma Fusion
("Cold Fusion")
Japanese Lettering
Entering the lab and on the right there was a styrofoam box containing two electrochemical cells using DS-cathodes inside separate Dewars, as shown in Fig. 2.4,1. The box cover was removed for the photograph. Total energy released in the cells was measured by water flow calorimetry. The water flow through each cell was circulated through a temperature controlled reservoir. The waters was pushed through the cells by separate positive displacement pumps. The inflow and outflow temperatures were metered. The equipment supporting the water flow system was to the left of the styrofoam insulation box. To the right of the box were the power supplies and metering equipment that powered the electrolysis and recorded current, voltage and temperature data, as shown in Figs. 2.4,1 and 2.4,2 At least one of the cells had been kept running during the ICCF6 meeting. Dr. Zhang checked the readings and said the cell was producing about 6 Watts of excess heat.
Further into the room on the right was a gas control manifold system which was used carry out pre-run tests on candidate Pd-black material. Pd-black material was not considered worth testing for fusion heat unless it showed an ability to absorb large amounts of hydrogen at sub-atmospheric pressure, as shown in Fig. 6 of their ICCF6 report. This pre-testing of nano-metal materials has been an important feature of the A-Z program since 1992. As I remember, there was also a hooded assembly area where DS-cathode cylinders (also called DS-vessels) were filled with Pd-black before being thoroughly evacuated, sealed, and mounted inside the electrolysis cell hardware. The Pt-black contained adsorbed oxygen, which became adsorbed water after the start of their run.
In the center of the room was a welded stainless steel manifold system containing 2 quadrupole mass spectrometers, one programmed to repeatedly scan across the mass-4 peaks, and the other programmed to repeatedly scan across the mass-3 peaks. See Fig, 2.4,3. The manifold system was pumped down using oil free turbo pumps to minimize contaminants. The manifold included a small heating system to heat post-run powder samples using operator-controlled temperature steps. The manifold contained an adjustable valve to control the rate at which desorption gas was removed during sample heating, and valves to isolate the most tightly bound desorbed gas for detailed analysis. The outputs from the mass spectrometers were metered on a multiple pen strip chart recorder. All equipment was top quality, and the designs demonstrated high skill and careful planning.
Quadrupole mass spectrometers are simple, clean devices, but require skilled operation to achieve high mass resolution. A-Z routinely resolved the 4He+ mass peak from the D2+ mass peak. Later in their program they were able in one run to resolve the 3He+ peak from the DH+ peak, but could not do this on a routine basis. The mass-3 peak separation is much smaller than for mass-4.. It was clear that Dr. Zhang knew the equipment in intimate detail. She had the same skilled touch and understanding that characterized her science heroine Dr. Chien Shiung Wu. Dr. Wu was the Shanghai scientist who, a generation earlier, had shown that left hand vs. right hand parity was not always conserved in nuclear reactions. Arata and Zhang functioned as a coordinated team. Dr. Zhang lived reasonably close to the lab and appeared to work a 14- to 16-hour day. Dr. Arata lived in Kobe and commuted by rail to the Osaka lab. Fortunately, there are good rail connections that made his commuting manageable.
Dr. Arata and Zhang worked toward a main goal of convincing themselves whether or not solid state fusion was real. Their strip chart recordings are clear and directly interpretable, and exist as lasting records of their results. Their publications make their results available to all who wish to study them. As a team they were not working in isolation. There was a collegial group of other scientists, mostly emeritus, with whom they discussed results and related science. One of Arata's close friends is Dr. H. Fujita, who gave a historic Honda memorial lecture on metal clusters. His specialty was studies made possible by design and use of a high resolution, high voltage electron microscope. His metal cluster studies have contributed to an understanding of the cold fusion process.
Arata arrived in Osaka and we went to Arata Hall. Fig. 2.4,4 shows a collegial sharing of views in a post-ICCF6 gathering in his office in Arata Hall.
Fig. 2.4,1 Two electrolysis cells using DS-cathodes monitored by water flow calorimeters are inside a styrofoam insulation box. The cells have been operating during ICCF8 conference.
Fig. 2.4,2 The cells are inside Dewars. Cooling water is provided by constant displacement pumps to the left. Current, voltage, and temperature readings are recorded by electronics to the right.
Fig. 2.4,3 Stainless steel vacuum system pumped down by turbine pump contains two quadrupole mass spectrometers that measure desorbed 4He and 3He gas. System contains programmed heater that heats post-run samples of Pd-black..
Fig. 2.4,4 Arata and Zhang discuss results with fellow scientists in Arata Hall
The discovery that nanometal deuterides can support cold fusion reactions occurred in 1992 with the first test of the A-Z DS-cathode concept. The first excess heat publication was their 1994 paper published in the Proceedings of the Japan Academy with title and abstract as follows:
"A New Energy caused by 'Spillover-Deuterium'"
Abstract: It was verified that a new kind of energy is caused by "Spillover-Deuterium" generated in a double structure (DS)-cathode with "Pd-black". Using this cathode, the authors confirmed the sustained production of a significantly abnormal amount of energy over a period of several months that could not be ascribed to chemical reaction energy. The chemical reaction energy of 0.1 [mol] Pd-black used is only 4 [kJ], but more than 200 [MJ] of excess heat was continuously produced for over 3000 [hr] at an average rate of 50-100 [kJ/hr] using a DS cathode with the same quantity of Pd-black. Intermittent operation over a period of two years using this structure proved the complete reproducibility of these results."
Spillover hydrogen is a name used in catalyst literature to describe a catalyst like Pd-black, for which the apparent area of the chemical-reaction catalyst is larger than a measured gas-adsorption catalyst area. A non-reactive gas like N2 is used in the measurement of gas-adsorption area. The A Z power rate 50-100 kJ/hr is the same as 14-28 Watts. The quantity 0.1-mol of Pd-black has a mass of 10.7 grams, which is somewhat more than the mass of Pd-black used in later experiments. The larger powder mass suggests that the first DS-cathodes may have had more inside volume and thinner walls than later versions.
There have been at least 13 A-Z heat-producing DS-cathode runs. The most important are the 1994 run shown in Supplement 1 page A1,4, the 1996 run discussed in Chapters 2.1-2.3, and the 2002 run on Supplement page A1,14. (Dates are publication dates) The main run plot for the 1994 paper shows the full run history, including an incubation period before cold fusion heat started. For the next roughly 8 runs A-Z did not plot the data accumulated during the incubation periods, where output heat equals input heat. For most readers, showing the data recorded during the incubation period would have had value, since a matching of measured total outflow heat power to input electrical power shows that the measurement of heat (calorimetry) has been properly carried out.
A more recent second goal of the A-Z program has been identification of nuclear fusion products, assumed to be mainly 4He, but maybe sometimes containing minute amounts of 3H and 3He. These measurements were carried out using the quadrupole mass spectrometers described in the preceding Chapter. Their first observation of 4He, and their later first observation of 3He were exciting moments. The data proved to A-Z's satisfaction that the observed excess heat was due to D + D fusion. A second part of Supplement 1 (See foonote p. 17) includes mass spectrometer observations which document the presence of the two helium gases following desorption from post-run palladium black or its ZrO2 + nanoPd equivalent. No 4He was ever seen in the desorption gases from materials that had not yet been processed inside a DS-cathode. A 3He peak was seen in the one case mentioned. It is much more difficult to see the 3He peak in the presence of DH molecules than to see the 4He peak in the presence of D2, because of the relatively small mass difference between 3He and DH, as compared to the mass difference between 4He and D2. The A-Z papers are a story of the author's growing understanding, rather than a big attempt to convince readers that cold fusion is real. Dr. Arata tries to explain the thinking that has guided his research. Independent of such thinking he assumes that the data speak for themselves.
In 2004 the US Department of Energy (DOE), in response to a request by some Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) scientists, asked the requesting scientists to prepare a Summary Document which would be examined by a DOE Review Panel made up of non-cold fusion scientists. This summary was published in Proc. ICCF11 as Hagelstein et al. "New Physical Effects in Metal Deuterides". To help prepare the Summary Document your author was requested to provide information about the A-Z program. He examined the papers in his files and made copies of the published A-Z excess heat runs. These run plots are made available in Supplement 1, together with some of A-Z's mass spectra of desorbed gases. There were restrictions on the length of the Summary Document. The run plots were not included in the Summary Document. Only a small part of the discussion on A-Z's nano-Pd research could be included.
The Summary Document delivered to DOE was distributed to the members of the DOE review panel. Roughly a month later members of the DOE Review Panel assembled in Washington to hear a presentation by a few of the proponent authors of the Summary Document. McKubre was the main presenter-author of the experimental evidence for cold fusion. Later, in December 2004 DOE published "Report of the Review of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions", which is DOE's evaluation of the Review Panel's opinions. The key question examined was the validity of the observations of excess heat. The DOE evaluation states,
"The excess power observed in some experiments is reported to be beyond that attributable to ordinary chemical or solid state sources; this excess power is attributed by proponents to nuclear fusion reactions. Evaluations by the reviewers ranged from : 1) evidence for excess power is compelling, to 2) there is no convincing evidence that excess power is produced when integrated over the life of an experiment. The reviewers were split approximately evenly on this topic."
"The hypothesis that excess energy production in electrolysis cells is due to low energy nuclear reactions was tested in some experiments by looking for D + D fusion reaction products, in particular 4He, normally produced in about 1 in 10^7 in hot D + D fusion reactions. Results reported in the review document purported to show that 4He was detected in five out of sixteen cases where electrolytic cells were reported to be producing heat. The detected 4He was typically very close to, but reportedly above background levels. This evidence was taken as convincing or somewhat convincing by some reviewers; for others the lack of consistency was an indication that the overall hypothesis was not justified."
The Summary Document delivered to DOE can be downloaded by doing a Google Search for "New Physical Effects in Metal Deuterides",
or by downloading www.LENR-CANR.org/acrobat, and then selecting hagelsteinnewphysica.pdf from a list of downloadable files. The Review Panel's evaluations can be downloaded by doing a Google Search for "Report of the Review of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions", or by downloading www.science.doe.gov/Sub/Newsroom/News_Releases
/DOE-SC/2004/low_energy/CF_Final_120104.pdf .
Although DOE sought a review of cold fusion by peers, this goal was not accomplished, because of reasons described in the THEORY Section. Cold fusion is part of the quantum world, and more particularly, of the many-body quantum world of metals and semiconductors. Nuclear physics and nuclear engineering are not part of the quantum world of metals and semiconductors. Nuclear physics is mostly part of the impact collision world of scattering studies and plasma fusion. Nuclear physicists have been unable to accept that the many-body quantum world can create conditions for nuclear reaction. They have been unable to accept that it can prevent emission of energetic particles and gamma rays, while providing a coupling between nucleus and lattice that dissipates nuclear reaction energy so as to heat the lattice.
It is asking too much of the nuclear community, including the panel members, to pass judgment on experiments that violate their core beliefs (knowledge). They belong to the wrong discipline, and cannot be considered peers. Chemists are more accepting. They live in the quantum world of chemical orbitals, and encounter metal and semiconductor quantum mechanics in their materials science. Mostly they defer to the nuclear community when it comes to nuclear reactions. There are chemists who are experts on the physical changes that are created by catalysis. Their field of interest can be considered part of the quantum physics of orbitals. However, most would consider the geometric changes required to enable hydrogen ions to behave like metal electrons to be outside their specialty. Cold fusion is made possible by geometric changes of embedded D-ions. Change from near-point geometry to 2-dimensional periodic symmetry can be catalyzed by nanometals in interface contact with ionic crystals. Change for near-point geometry to 3–dimensoinal periodic symmetry can be catalyzed by nanometals loaded beyond stoichiometric lattice symmetry. These catalyzed changes, and maybe others, ccause embedded deuterons to change into a quasiparticle geometry which enables cold fusion. This intellectual mismatch between the nuclear physics discipline and the many-body physics discipline is what has led to this chapter being called "Nanometal Catalysis vs. Nuclear Bang".
Metal oxide + nanometal composites are a new class of materials
that have been demonstrated to be catalytically active in supporting cold fusion using deuterium fuel. A metal oxide + nanometal is a combination of small oxide crystals in interface contact with a nanometal form of metal, such that the contacting layer of metal adjusts to the lattice structure of the oxide. We call such material an "oxide-nanometal composite" (ONC). At present only one form of oxide-nanometal composite has been tested as a catalyst for cold fusion heat production. In the test a zirconium-palladium ONC generated a continuous 10 Watts of excess heat when used in a standard A-Z DS-cathode electrolysis cell. The test run was A Z's first production of excess heat using a nanometal other than Pd-black. In a second study a "DS-cathode vessel" was filled with zirconium-palladium ONC and exposed to D2 gas at elevated temperature and pressure. No electrolysis was involved. Continuous heat at an estimated 0.5 Watt was observed. The tested zirconium-metal ONC was a ZrO2,nanometal Pd composite with 0.33 Pd/Zr atom ratio. In an unrelated program, gas permeation studies were carried out by Iwamura et al. in which a permeation flow of deuterium was forced through a Pd plate containing diffusion-impeding structures. These internal structures were produced by sputtering layers of calcium oxide (CaO) and Pd onto a Pd substrate. The sputtered layers are thought to be somewhat equivalent to a CaO-palladium ONC. Electrolysis driven permeation flow produced a reported >1.0 Watt of excess heat in five tests. The Iwamura "ONC catalyst" composition could be described as a CaO-nanoPd layer. It would seem that stable ionic crystals other than ionic oxides could be used to produce catalysts of the same general type.
As discussed later under THEORY, a metal oxide + nanometal composite is thought to be able to create a stable lattice interface between a very chemically stable ionic crystal (very negative Gibbs Free Energy) and a more morphable, electrically conductive metal material. A nanocrstalline metal is especially morphable and can adjust itself to fit commensurably onto the ionic crystal surface. An exact fit interface is called an epitaxy interface. An epitaxy interface layer provides a periodic environment of the type needed to make deuterium ions behave like the conduction electrons of a metal.
Information on metal oxide nanometal composites was first published in 2002 by Yamaura et al. from the Institute of Materials Science at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. Their paper provides details of the protocol used in producing the zirconium-palladium ONC. A molten alloy of Zr and Pd is rapidly frozen by a spin-cooling ribbon-forming process. In the next steps the thin ribbon of amorphous alloy is oxidized at a relatively low temperature and pulverized into a powder before use. The authors characterized the powder's internal structure using x ray and electron scattering. They used electron microscope imagery to "photograph" the internal distribution of nanometal in the ZrO2, and its embedded shapes. The research team also carried out laboratory tests showing the material's remarkable ability to absorb hydrogen gas. Similar hydrogen absorption studies were carried out by A-Z prior to examining the composite's excess heat production properties at Osaka University. The high absorption capacity of the powder was confirmed.
At Osaka University a sample of ZrO2 + nanoPd composite was tested for its ability to generate nuclear fusion heat. A-Z used the powdered composite to replace commercial Pd-black in their standard electrolysis test cell. It was their first use of a nanometal in a form other than commercial Pd-black. Using their standard electrolysis procedure to pressurize the sample with deuterium, they produced a stable output of cold fusion heat at a 10-Watt level for a period of 3 weeks. The amount of Pd in the sample was a few grams. Their work was published in 2002, the same year as the Yamaura et al. study. Their daily output of heat was remarkably steady. It did not seem to show the fluctuations in power that were seen in their Pd-black runs. The data may show a component of fluctuation that does not alter mean energy production, though the relatively rapid power fluctuations may be a metering problem or an illusion. In any case, the data indicate an improved stability in heat production. The data run is the same 2002 test run discussed in the preceding chapter. [See Supplement 1, Figure 5 on page A1-14]
The A-Z 2002 test showed that ZrO2 + nanoPd composite provides an effective cure for two problems that have hampered other researchers in their use of nanoPd catalyst. Good repeatability has not been much of a problem for A-Z . The McKubre team, using a DS-cathode assembled, filled with Pd-black, evacuated, and sealed by A-Z, had the same excess heat results as A-Z had when they operated a control experiment prepared at the same time. Both experiments were run with the same protocol. This experiment duplication showed that the technology was transportable between laboratories. But other experimenters have handled their nanopowder differently from A-Z, and have had difficulty producing comparable fusion heat. The problem seems to be that new investigators have followed the normal instructions used by chemists and engineers in preparing catalyst for promoting chemical reactions. They have chemically reduced their catalyst before use. In contrast, A-Z vacuum clean their Pd black before sealing it off under vacuum, but generally do not chemically reduce it. Commercial Pd-black has an oxide coating that subsequently gets chemically reduced when deuterium diffuses through the wall of the DS-cathode, leaving A-Z's Pd-black nancrystals coated with adsorbed D2O. Evidence for this is that substantial adsorbed water was found in a mass-spectrometer desorption analysis of post-run powder in a study by Oliver at the Pacific Northwest Lab. The oxygen in the water had to come from surface oxide on the sealed-off Pd-black, since there was no other oxygen available. The presence of water showed that the A-Z Pd-black had not been chemically reduced before being hermetically isolated. The adsorbed water present in Pd-black prepared using the A-Z protocol probably plays the same role as the ZrO2 in the work using ZrO2 + nanoPd composites.
An example of inexperienced cold fusion experimenters treating Pd–black prepared in accord with instructions for preparing chemical catalysts prior to use is found in a study by G. Schmidt and T. Chubb. Dr. Schmidt designed and built a system designed to study heat production from Pd-black at pressures as high as 30,000 psi (2000 atmospheres) and temperatures up to 350 deg C. The search for fusion heat was unsuccessful, but the deleterious effect of rigorous chemical reduction of Pd-black was discovered. Before-run and after-run powder samples were sent to Asraf Imam at the Naval Research Lab (NRL) for x-ray diffraction study. Imam's Bragg diffraction spectra are shown below in Fig. 2.6,1. The before-run spectrum shows unusually broad line widths, which means that the effective grain size was a few nanometers, despite the manufacturer's characterization of the material size as 0.3 micron (300 nanometers). The after-run spectrum shows that the x-ray diffraction line widths had narrowed, which means that grain size had grown and that the nanometer properties had been lost. The powder was not essentially different from bulk Pd metal. This also means that the nanocrystal metal form is a higher energy configuration than bulk metal. As chemists and physicists know, such material seeks to go to lower energy. When 2 nanometal crystals make mutual contact, they transition to a lower energy state by merging together, losing such properties as being able to store hydrogen in anomalously high amounts, and losing the ability to promote cold fusion reactions. This crystal merging process also takes place when a clean nanocrystal Pd makes contact with ordinary Pd metal. The clean nanocrystals grow into the metal surface. and become part of the Pd bulk metal. This phenomenon does not occur when the nanoPd makes contact with stainless steel. The measurements and crystal merging observations are discussed in Supplement 2.
One concludes that the new composites have two important properties. First, they prevent the nanometal crystals from making with each other by surrounding them with inert metal oxide crystal. Second, they provide a highly periodic interface between the nanometal and ionic crystal, an interface that catalyzes the cold fusion reaction. Their fabrication protocol is clearly defined, and matches a protocol suggested by Imam and Hubler at NRL. Prior to their reading the Yamaura et al. paper, Imam and Hubler explained how such material could be made.
The role of ionic solid + nanometal interfaces will be discussed further in the THEORY section. However, it is worth noting that two 2007 material science papers relevant to the interface layer have been published in Physical Review Letters. A paper by K.J. Franke et al. is titled "Achieving Epitaxy between Incommensurate Materials by Quasicrystalline Interlayers". The paper discusses the locking into registry that can occurs when different materials make epitaxy contact. This locking into registry can lower system energy if perfect crystalline order by somewhat incommensurate partners does not extend to the actual interface contact. The other paper, by G. Barcaro et al. is titled "Epitaxy, Truncations, and Overhangs in Palladium Nanoclusters Adsorbed on MgO (001)". This paper is a solid state physics modeling paper that uses a standard procedure called density functional calculation. It calculates the minimal energy configuration for a number of perfect and imperfect metal clusters in epitaxial contact with a crystal phase of the metal oxide MgO. The metal clusters studied are smaller than 30 atoms, so they are smaller than nominal nanoPd crystals. For many of the imperfect metal clusters, energy is minimized when locking in registry occurs. Disorder in the deposited metal and strong ordering in the metal oxide are properties that make the new composites able to promote cold fusion.
Dr. Yamaura expresses his views as to where the anomalously large amount of hydrogen, (or deuterium), absorbed into his oxide-nanometal composite goes. His view is that the extra hydrogen is associated with the nanometal surfaces, and not with the nanometal interior. His views should be taken seriously. His view fits a picture in which most of A-Z's anomalous deuterium atoms occupy vacancy sites and interstitial locations in the somewhat imperfect region of metal adjacent to the actual interface. The metal monolayer that binds to the ionic crystal can be epitaxial (exact fit). As discussed in the THEORY section, the epitaxial interface can be shared with a geometrically ordered, quasiparticle form of deuterium, which is nuclearly reactive.
Fig 2.6,1 Bragg reflection spectrum of pre-run and post-run Pd-black used in high pressure studies by G. Schmidt and T. Chubb at the University of New Mexico. Bragg spectra were recorded by Dr. Imam of the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). The Pd-black was thoroughly pumped down, chemically reduced, and pumped down again before being pressurized with D2 gas and tested for fusion heat at elevated temperature. No heat at 1-watt level was observed. Broad spectral lines of purchased Pd-black indicate nanostructure. Post-run spectral show the same narrow lines that characterize bulk Pd, which means the nanocrystals had grown together to form bigger crystals. Study shows importance of not including chemical reduction in protocol for preparing Pd-black for use in DS-cathode studies.
There is a parallel between how one burns carbonaceous fuel and how cold fusion "burns" deuterium. In burning carbonaceous fuels there is a contrast between the slow combustion of charcoal and the flaming fire that consumes wood logs. When one burns charcoal in the backyard grill, one first prepares the charcoal by soaking it with igniter fluid and igniting the fluid vapors so as to get local portions of the charcoal red hot, or one heats the charcoal with a propane flame until portions of the charcoal are red hot. Once red hot, the charcoal is quietly consumed, producing enough heat by its combustion (exothermic reaction with air) to keep itself at reaction temperature. In the log fire, one ignites newspaper under some kindling which has been strategically placed within or under the log pile. The burning newspaper raises the local temperature of the kindling wood to a point where gaseous flammable vapors are distilled from the kindling wood. These gaseous hydrocarbon-rich vapors burn, heating some of the logs, distilling off more gases from the logs. The burning of the decomposition gases when combined with desorption of new decomposition gases is a self-stimulating process. We call it fire. The fire continues until the wood runs out of enough decomposable material to maintain the flaming fire. Residual charcoal is left. Combustion ends when the slow burning residual charcoal is insufficient to keep the remaining charcoal at combustion temperature.
At the ICCF13 conference in Russia, a paper by the author was presented that calculated the heat produced by a slow burn process in a previously published cold fusion experiment. The earlier experiment was a 2004 A-Z gas loading study using zirconium-palladium ONC.
The Caucuses mountains extend from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea and along the northern coast of the Black Sea almost to the Crimea peninsula. A railroad hugs this north coast, passing through tunnels on its to way to the present, somewhat disputed boundary between Russia and Georgia. Close to this boundary is the airport of the bustling Russian city of Sochi. On the western side of Sochi is the resort and conference facility of Dagomys, which has been the host site of several Former Soviet Union (FSU) conferences on cold fusion and related subjects. Last year (2007) Dagomys was the host site for the ICCF13 conference on Low Energy Nuclear Physics (LENR). Your author has attended two conferences at Dagomys, and one at a Moscow State University conference site a few miles west. This year he prepared a presentation for ICCF13 titled "Cold Fusion Heaters". He was unable to attend, but was honored to have his talk presented by Michael McKubre of SRI. He wrote a paper for the conference which will be published in the Proceedings of ICCF13. Figure 2.7,1 is taken from this Proceedings.
In 2004, Arata and Zhang were able to work together for less than 2 months. During this time they developed plans for a gas loading study using ZrO2 + nanoPd composite material, built the test equipment, and carried out the first laboratory tests on this material, together with comparison studies using Pd-black. This period included 17 days of test time. Despite this severe time limitation they obtained pioneering data that was presented at ICCF12. They showed for the first time that cold fusion reactions could be made to occur in palladium material through the use of gas loading of a nanometal at elevated temperature. Their ICCF12 Proceedings paper provided information that was not presented in conference talk. This added information enables one to estimate the amount of cold fusion power that was liberated during the study. This analysis is part of the author's Proceeding of ICCF13 paper, and is the basis of this discussion on slow-burn fusion. For more detail the reader is directed to Supplement 3.
We have already discussed the 2002 A-Z production of cold fusion heat using electrolysis onto a DS-cathode. Steady heat was produced at a 10 Watt level for 3 weeks. Basically the same geometry was used in the A-Z 2004 lab studies. Instead of calling the inner cylinder with Pd wall a DS-cathode, A-Z called it an "inner vessel". The inner vessel was surrounded by an "outer vessel" made of stainless steel. Both inner and outer vessels were vacuum tight, and were independently evacuated before lab tests were started. The outer vessel, which surrounded the inner vessel, was connected to pressure tight tubing through which deuterium gas could be fed by opening a needle valve during the test. The outer vessel was surrounded by a cylindrical electrical heater element, which in turn was within a cylinder of insulation. Both outer and inner vessels were instrumented to provide continuous recording of temperature and pressure.
The A-Z 2004 study operated the new test facility so as to compare behavior under 4 conditions. In all 4 runs the previously evacuated assembly was first heated to a steady 140 deg C using the cylindrical heater. The heater was first operated at a relatively high power to quickly heat the assembly, and then the heater power was gradually reduced to a low maintenance power level as the 140 deg C temperature was approached. After vessel temperatures were stabilized, deuterium gas was flowed into the outer vessel at a controlled rate, with flow stopped when the interior pressure reached about 100 bar (atmospheres). In one run H2 was used instead of D2. The results were as follows:
In Run 1 the assembly was studied with the inner vessel containing no test powder and using D2 gas. The inner vessel, being further from the cylindrical heater, approached steady state with the inner vessel temperature being and remaining lower than the outer cylinder temperature.
In Run 2 the assembly was studied with the inner vessel filled with previously evacuated Pd-black test powder and using H2 gas inflow. Again, the inner vessel, being further from the cylindrical heater, approached steady state with the inner vessel temperature being and remaining lower than the outer cylinder temperature. There was no indication of fusion energy release.
In Run 3 the inner vessel was filled with evacuated Pd-black and the input gas flow was D2 gas. In the third run there was the same transient rise in temperature during gas inflow, but as steady state was approached, the inner vessel temperature became and remained higher than the outer vessel temperature. This reverse in steady state temperature difference indicated that cold fusion heat was being generated within the inner vessel.
In Run 4 the inner vessel was filled with evacuated ZrO2 + nanoPd composite and the input gas flow was D2 gas. In the third run the inner vessel temperature approached steady state with the inner vessel temperature being and remaining higher than the outer vessel temperature. But his time the steady state temperature difference was about 6 times that shown in Run 3. Also the temperature of the whole assembly rose from about its initial steady value of 140 deg C to a steady value about 183 deg C. The increase in temperature difference suggests that the ZrO2-nanoPd composite was about 6 times more effective in catalyzing cold fusion than the Pd-black.
The author's ICCF13 paper used the observed rise in inner and outer vessel temperatures to estimate the amount of cold fusion power being liberated in Run 4. Figure 2.7,1 shows the basis of the calculation. The estimated heat output was 0.6 Watt, which is quite a bit less than the 10 Watts observed during the A-Z 2000 electrolysis run. This lower fusion rate indicates an important difference between "slow burn" and a "self-stimulated burn" behaviors. On the other hand, the 0.6 Watts suggests that a small increase in fusion heat relative to the electric energy that powered the heater could result in the continuous production of cold fusion heat with the electrical heater turned off. The reactor assembly would subsequently be kept hot solely by cold fusion generated heat. Demonstrations of continuous heat with no input power would make it difficult for skeptics to deny the reality of the cold fusion process.
Figure 2.7,1. Temperature and heater power history used in calculating cold fusion power produced by gas loading of ZrO2, nanoPd composite. Data for the lower left plot were taken from Figure 8 of the A-Z Proc. ICCF12 paper. Data for the upper right plot were taken from Figure 5. The calculated fusion power assumes that fusion power and heater power affect the temperature of the outer ss vessel equally. The heater power at temperature stabilization was 1.7 W. Fusion power that resulted from the inflow of 100 bar D2 raised the temperature of the apparatus a further 42 deg C, which means that 0.6 W was added to the constant heater power of 1.7 W.
The work carried out by A-Z during the 2002 to 2006 period has set the stage for development of cold fusion heaters. It may be that A-Z's 2004 use of direct gas absorption into metal oxide nanometal composites will prove the best route to commercialization. This process would belong to the slow burn category. However, the estimated heat output thus far achieved by gas loading is relatively low. It may be that a better route to early practicality would be to make use of the full range of technical understanding that has been accumulated by the global community over the last 18 years. Key learnings are listed below. They suggest a competing approach which involves developing closed loop heaters that combine deuterium fluxing, high deuterium chemical potential, and oxide-nanometal interfaces.
One of the important discoveries that came out of past excess heat experiments using bulk Pd cathodes was a formulation by McKubre et al. of an empirical law relating fusion heat generation to operating parameters which were measured during F-P type electrolysis. This formula was used to model the electrochemical experiments carried out by the SRI team. It involves the product of 3 factors: deuterium concentration above a threshold value, current density above a threshold value, and the in and out deuterium flow through the full surface of the cathode during operation of the electrolysis cell. Net inflow and outflow flux were found to be equally effective. The McKubre formula is
P = M (x-xo) (I-Io)2 |dx/dt| Watts
where P is generated heat power in Watts, M is a data-fitting constant, x is deuterium concentration in the metal electrolysis cathode defined by D/Pd ratio, xo is a threshold ratio which must be exceeded for production of measurable fusion heat, which is typically about 0.85, I is palladium metal cathode current density in Amperes/cm^2, Io is the threshold cathode current density at which measurable heat first appears, and |dx/dt| is a deuterium fluxing term which measures the net flow of deuterium into or out of the palladium metal cathode. The remarkable thing about this equation is that it fits the data and doesn't care whether the fluxing term is positive or negative. In either case there is a flow of deuterons inside the Pd metal. When fluxing is present, deuterons are moving through the metal. As we shall see below, there is other evidence that deuterium fluxing is an important ingredient affecting fusion rate, and there is some theoretical justification for why fluxing should be important.
The McKubre equation was fit to the data shown in Figure 7 of the Summary Document which was written for the DOE Review. The fit was discussed on pages 5 and 6 of the Summary Document. The equation provided a good fit to two multi-day "bursts" of cold fusion heat which occurred during the much longer M-4 SRI experiment. The M-4 study was the one that produced convincing evidence for 4He production at 23.8 MeV per helium atom inside a hermetically sealed cold fusion apparatus
A second important discovery was made by Iwamura et al., who explored the production of heat by electrolysis-driven deuterium permeation flow through a palladium reactor plate. The reactor plate contained 5 pairs of sputtered-implanted CaO and Pd layers. Their excess heat observations were reported at ICCF7. In a 1999 paper the Iwamura team listed 5 runs, in which fusion heat at times exceeded 1 Watt. No heat was observed with permeation plates not containing internal CaO-Pd sputtered layers. Because CaO is an ionic crystal with a highly negative free energy like that of ZrO2 (both are very chemically stable), the oxide layers are expected to be in the form of small crystals, while the sputtered Pd is likely to have been initially disordered. There would seem to be a similarity between the Iwamura interfaces and those present in the Yamaura-fabricated ZrO2-nanoPd composites. In the Iwamura studies the deuterium permeation flow was driven by heavy water electrolysis in which the front surface of permeation plate served as the electrolysis cell cathode. Gas was continuously pumped away from the back surface of Iwamura's permeation plate, thereby maintaining a pressure drop during operation. It seems highly likely that the D/Pd ratios in Iwamura's plates were significantly below the threshold value xo appearing in the McKubre empirical equation. Permeation implies a high rate of deuterium fluxing (flow), which may have compensated for Iwamura's relatively low D/Pd ratio. These observations of excess heat support the view that deuterium fluxing is important factor in heat generation.
F-P type electrolysis uses overvoltage electrolysis of heavy water to create a non-equilibrium deuterium chemical potential inside a Pd-metal cathode. However, a high deuterium chemical potential can be achieved without incurring the energy cost of dissociating heavy water if one uses a fuel cell type of solid electrolyte cell. The feedstock for fuel cells is deuterium gas, which replaces the heavy water used by F-P. A high deuterium chemical potential in Pd metal was demonstrated by Biberian in a fuel cell study described in Proc. ICCF11. It is easy to envision the use of solid electrolyte fuel cells on both input and output surfaces of a permeation type plate reactor. The operator could change the balance between deuterium fluxing rate and front surface deuterium chemical potential, while achieving high values of both. Closed-loop operation of a fuel cell-driven, closed-loop system would greatly reduce the parasitic power loss that occurs with heavy water electrolysis cell operation. The author thinks that this approach is a candidate for practical cold fusion heat production.
A-Z made an important step towards commercial cold fusion room heaters when they published the hydrogen absorption characteristics of ZrO2-nanoNi and ZrO2-nanoNi,Pd composites, starting from Zr,Ni and Zr,Ni,Pd alloys. These composite materials presumably had been manufactured at the Institute for Materials Science at Tohoku University. A-Z reported on their H2 absorption properties in Proceedings of ICCF10 in 2003. The ZrO2 + nanoNi composite was as good an H2 absorber as ZrO2 + nanoPd, whereas the ZrO2 + nanoNi,Pd alloy composite, which contained a 0.18 Pd/Ni atom ratio, absorbed twice as much gas. To my knowledge none of these composites have been tested in a DS cathode electrolysis cell for generation of fusion heat. If the heat production from deuterided ZrO2 + nanoNi composite is as good as that from ZrO2 + nanoPd composite, the cost problem associated with use of palladium goes away. Since the oxide-nanometal composites have not shown an aging problem, there would then seem to be no serious barrier to cold fusion heater development.
The quickest road to cold fusion room heaters may be to build on the Arata-Zhang gas loading work using metal oxide nanometal composites described in their ICCF12 paper at elevated temperature, as discussed in the Chapter on Slow Burn Simplicity. Such heaters would require a start-up heater to raise a portion of the heater assembly to operating temperature. It's just like using lighter fluid to start burning charcoal. The A Z tests with ZrO2-nanoPd composites indicate that with a larger volume apparatus heated to 140 oC the operator could turn off the auxiliary heater and the apparatus would continue to generate heat. The decreased surface/volume ratio that goes with a larger assembly reduces the heat loss/heat generation fraction. Therefore it seems probable that with a large assembly of the tested type, continuous heat production with no power input can be achieved. Once achieved, the heater would stay hot using only cold fusion reaction heat. The escaping cold fusion heat would continue to heat the room without consumption of electrical power. Convective heat flow like that present with hot water radiators would then heat the room. The heater could be turned off by using cold water to cool the inside of the heater below reaction temperature. The Turn-off cooling would be like adding cold water to a boiling-hot kettle.
Unfortunately, palladium is a costly noble metal. The cost of the Pd used in the assembly would be too high to be used in a commercial device. The good news is that it may well be possible to use nanoNi to the replace nanoPd. It has not yet been shown that deuterium gas + ZrO2-nanoNi nanocomposite will produce cold fusion heat. However, as previously mentioned, the A-Z nanometal fusion program from its start in 1994 has used the absorption properties of test nanometal at low hydrogen pressure as a criterion for recognizing good fusion-producing material. If a batch of Pd powder has the hydrogen absorbing characteristics of Pd metal filings, then the material is not useful. Pd metal filings have the same absorption properties as bulk Pd metal. At 1 atmosphere of pressure, the equilibrium value of H/Pd is about 0.7 at room temperature. The ratio does not increase much in value with pressure. With good nanometal powder hydrogen absorption creates a H/Pd ratio significantly greater than 1. With ZrO2-nanoPd at 100 atmosphere, the H/Pd ratio is almost 3. The encouraging information is that the hydrogen absorption properties of ZrO2-nanoNi composites have been measured, and they are as good as those of ZrO2 nanoPd. (Replacing about 15% of the Ni atoms with Pd creates a composite with absorption properties that are considerably higher than those of either ZrO2-nanoPd composite or ZrO2-nanoNi composite.) These data were reported by A-Z at the ICCF10 Conference in 2003, and published as Figure 5 in the Proceedings ICCF10 (2006), p.144.
From an engineering perspective, the metal oxide-nanometal composites seem to catalyze the production of nuclearly reactive deuterium in accord with a near-equilibrium reversible chemistry process. A near chemical equilibrium process means that the chemical portion of the overall reaction is not bothered by instability-stimulated loss of deuterium. This is not the case when bulk Pd is used. The freedom from chemical instability minimizes development problems. In the development plan outlined later, testing of ZrO2-nanoNi composite for heat generation is given highest priority.
We now describe a self-stimulated developmental cold fusion heater that makes use of a closed-loop deuterium circulation system driven by a pair of solid-electrolyte fuel-cell based electrolysis cells. The inflow cell drives circulation, and the outflow cell either drives or impedes deuterium circulation under operator control. The concept heater uses an assembly containing a metal reactor plate interfaced with either one or two solid-electrolyte layers. The assembly is mounted inside a gas containment enclosure pierced with hermetically sealed electrical feed-through fittings. The enclosure is filled with deuterium gas D2. The containment enclosure contains a metal reactor plate capable of absorbing deuterium. During heat generation operation it is subject to the diffusion flow of deuterium in response to an internal deuterium density gradient. The reactor plate is fabricated so as to contain internal layers of metal oxide in contact with sputtered Pd and oriented parallel to the plate's surface, and of construction such that the layers impede, but do not prevent deuterium diffusion flow within the reactor plate. The two exterior faces of the reactor plate are each coated with a solid state electrolyte. Each solid electrolyte layer is overcoated with a metal foil which is capable of dissolving deuterium. Metal foil, solid electrolyte, and contacting surface of the reactor plate form an electrolysis cell. There are two cells. There is an inflow electrolysis cell through which deuterium flows before entering the reactor plate, and an outflow electrolysis cell through which deuterium flows after leaving the reactor plate. The rims of the reactor plate, the two electrolyte layers, and the two metal foils are coated with an electrical insulator, which constitutes an annular rim insulator. The annular rim insulator is penetrated at the metal plate's rim with an electrical conducting wire, which passes through a feed-through fitting that penetrates the containment vessel wall so as to permit connection to an external source of voltage and current outside the containment enclosure. Separate electrical wires make contact with the two metal foils, and pass through the wall of the containment enclosure through separate metal feed-through fittings. All wire passages through the walls of the containment enclosure are vacuum-tight sealed. A hermetic gas input tube penetrates the containment enclosure wall. The input tube is used to introduce deuterium gas into the cell during a preparation period during which a desired initial quantity of deuterium dissolves into the various metal components and a desired initial quantity of deuterium gas fills the containment enclosure. The gas input tube can be sealed off before the process operation. The concept cell is shown in Figure 2.10,1.
During the process operation, deuterium gas is absorbed into the positive electrode of the inflow electrolysis cell. The absorbed deuterium converts into ion form, then passes through the front electrolysis cell and enters the front layer of the reactor plate, flows through the reactor plate where a portion is subject to conversion to quasiparticle form at internal CaO-palladium interfaces, then mostly passes out the back surface of the reactor plate into the outflow electrolysis cell with its covering metal foil, and re-enters the gas volume of the containment enclosure as deuterium gas. It thereby completes a closed-loop circulation path. This deuterium circulation is driven by serial voltage potentials applied across the inflow and outflow electrolysis cells. The interface flow process converts some of the diffusing deuterium into a nuclearly active configuration. As described in THEORY, paired deuteron quasiparticles undergo exothermic cold fusion reactions. Released nuclear energy converts into heat within the reactor plate. Subsequent heat transfer flow delivers the generated heat to a user application.
Fig. 2.10,1. Concept drawing of a closed-loop cold fusion heater that generates heat from closed-loop circulating deuterium gas. The closed-loop heater uses a permeation process employed by Iwamura et al. in studies reported in 1999. It also operates at higher deuterium chemical potential (effective pressure), and can make use of ionic solid-nanometal composites pioneered by Arata and Zhang. Item 1 is a pressure tight enclosure, Item 2 is a cold fusion reactor plate containing inclusions that provided ionic oxide-nanometal interfaces, Left and right items 3 are solid electrolyte layers, and Left and right items 4 are metal foils that cover and make contact with the solid electrolyte layers. Item 5 designates a gas tight, insulating surface. The inflow metal foil converts D2 gas into D+ ions, and the outflow metal foil converts D+ ion into D2 gas, completing a closed-loop circulation flow. Cold fusion occurs in the ionic solid-nanometal interfaces where deuterium is present in a quasiparticle geometry.
An active research and development plan is needed to make commercial cold fusion heaters a reality. It is important to organize the core program around skills that relate to the A-Z research successes. The overall program should be a broad one, and address both deuterium flow processes and elevated temperature gas loading, plus their combined use. The development of composite materials and their characterization should share top priority along with testing for cold fusion heat. Testing of ZrO2 + nanoNi composite for excess heat is especially important. It is about 500 times less expensive than Pd on a per atom basis. The program should be one that provides research and development funding over the long term. The inclusion of a basic research component is almost essential. The potential for application is large.
The structure and means for an effective development plan are to be determined (TBD).
Today's world wide research effort in the cold fusion and related cold fusion areas is in trouble. The present generation of dedicated scientists that have kept the cold fusion art advancing are growing old and disappearing as active hands-on workers. There are almost no young scientists doing active research, or studying the pertinent science. The history of successful experiments is almost unknown to both teachers and students, and the research publications describing these studies are not archived in most libraries. There is no consensus on theory. Almost the entire "cold fusion" community is thinking in terms of high density configurations or energized deuteron concepts. These classical concepts can only explain forms of fusion which produce energetic particle emission. Cold fusion is not that kind of fusion. Geometric quantum symmetries prevent cold fusion from producing high energy emissions. Solid state cold fusion physics enables nuclear energy to heat a hosting metal by solid state mechanisms that resemble the heating of a wire by an electrical current.
In terms of resources available in the US, one plan for the future would be the establishment of a government supported effort with a minimum commitment of 5 to 10 years. One cannot expect top quality young professionals to take the risk of joining an effort that does not guarantee stable employment. It usually takes as much as 3 years for a scientist entering a new field to learn enough to make a positive contribution. Things are better if there is an active group already present. If you consider one or two competent professionals to be such a group, there are only a few such groups in the US. The Departments of Energy and Defense are potential sponsors, and the fact that the space exploration program will greatly benefit suggests that NASA could be a potential sponsor. There is difficulty in getting government support as long as professional scientific organizations fail to seriously examine the cold fusion option,. A positive step would be for Congress to fund the National Academy of Science to examine the cold fusion field.
Other support possibilities should be explored. A profit-motivated enterprise could take a long term view and invest in what they would initially feel to be high risk, high payoff technology. There is a danger in this approach. If the enterprise sought to protect its early efforts by Patent rights, its work would not be shared with the global community, and it would in turn be isolated from the cooperative world effort that has kept this research alive thus far. This problem could be avoided if the profit-motivated enterprises agreed to openly share all the results they obtained during the initial years of their work. They would be basing their hope for future profit on the expectation that the accumulating corporate expertise and the research by-products would provide them a technical advantage, leading to commercial success in the market place.
Another option would be for a Foundation or other non-profit individual or organization to provide the financial support needed. It would be most effective if the benefactor found a way to build on a currently successful program. Technology leadership is in Japan, but even the Japanese effort is fragile. A non-profit's support of an international program would be the surest means for quickly bringing cold fusion energy to commercial reality. Commitment over a 5 - 10 year period is more important than dedication of a larger amount of funds for a shorter period.
In structuring the development effort, it is important that materials research and characterization play a key role. Materials research is needed in conjunction with laboratory studies on heat generation and process reproducibility, which in turn are needed for guiding device design, testing, and engineering. Over the near future, duplication of effort should be encouraged and not avoided. It is advised that some of the materials development and evaluation studies should be done in close proximity and/or be closely coupled to the design and testing of developmental cold fusion heaters. Experiment and testing will probably continue to guide theory rather than theory guide experiment over the next few years. Both theory and modeling need to be supported. Theory should include both solid state computer modeling of candidate materials and a more basic modeling of the underlying physics process.
Other countries face similar problems. Maybe a multinational program could sponsor the needed research.
