Experiment: Focardi et al., "Evidence of electromagnetic radiation" (2004)

Focardi, S., et al., "Evidence of electromagnetic radiation from Ni-H Systems," in Eleventh International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (2004).

Summary: Three Ni-H systems emitted gamma radiation after hydrogen was introduced.  The first system showed excess heat, and the second showed none.  When the third system underwent thermal excitation, the rate of photon emission increased for a short period of time.

Discussion

In three different experiments, nickel plates were interleaved with heating elements in a closed chamber.  The chamber was first evacuated and then hydrogen gas was introduced.  Emissions in one experiment lasted forty-five days after degassing.  Gamma emission did not always depend on temperature.  In the second experiment, which showed marked gamma activity above background, samples were kept for fifty-two days in a vacuum while measurements were taken of photon emission, before hydrogen was introduced.  They obtained photon emission but not excess heat.  The spectrum lasted for twenty-six days after hydrogen was added.  In the third experiment there was no difference in spectra during the degassing period and the introduction of H2.  In all three experiments, the peak energy in the spectra was the same.  The first system showed excess heat at one point, and Cr and Mn turned up in the nickel samples.  The second system showed no excess heat or neutron emission and nothing unusual was found in the surface analysis.

There are two databases that can help in determining what is happening in a spectrum at a given energy range: GAMQUEST (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) and NUDAT (Brookhaven National Laboratory).

An important possibility here is that what is emitted by the system depends upon how the system is set up.  Questions:  The difference curve in figure 4 is small; is it statistically significant?   What is degassing?  Were there transmutations in the third experiment?  Why were there no transmutations in the second experiment?

Experiment: Iwamura et al., "Observation of Nuclear Transmutation" (2004)

Iwamura, Y. et al., "Observation of Nuclear Transmutation Reactions induced by D2 Gas Permeation through Pd Complexes," in Eleventh International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (2004), Marseille, France.

Summary:  Transmutations of Ba -> Sm, Cs -> Pr and possibly Sr -> Mo seen in deuterium-loaded Pd/CaO/Pd complexes.  When MgO was substituted for CaO, no positive results were obtained.

Discussion

A thin layer of Pd, beneath it a layer of CaO and beneath that a subtrate of Pd were used.  At 70 C, Deuterium was loaded into the Pd complex by subjecting one side to 1 atm D2 and the other side a vacuum.  The deuterium entered the Pd complex, separated into individual deuterons in the complex and then recombined into D2 on the other side.  Target elements were deposited on the Pd complex using different means.  In more than 60 trials, a Cs -> Pr transmutation was seen, with nearly 100 percent reproducibility.  In three cases, a Sr -> Mo transmutation was seen, with ratios of isotopes of Mo different than found in nature.  The existence of Pr was checked using several methods.  The Cs -> Pr reaction appears to have occurred in a thin surface region.  A positive correlation was seen between the rate of conversion of Cs into Pr with deuterium flux through the Pd complex.

It was necessary to infer the Sm from the presence of elements of weight 150, and two other possibilities were ruled out.  In the Ba -> Sm transmutations, there was an increase of atomic mass of 12 and atomic number of 6.

How important are unnatural ratios of isotopes? What is a Mossbaur isotope?  Assuming the data are accurate, how impressive would these results be to a specialist in the field?

The NASA slides

1. Dennis Bushnell, "NASA and LENR," http://newenergytimes.com/v2/government/NASA/20110922NASA-Bushnell-GRC-LENR-Workshop.pdf.
2. Gustave Fralick et al., "LENR at GRC," http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/sensors/PhySen/docs/LENR_at_GRC_2011.pdf.

The first set of slides were prepared by Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA Langley Research Center, and provided to Steven Krivit on November 25, 2001, by way of a FOIA request.  Bushnell's slides are the work of a man who is convinced that LENR is real.  His list of applications is fairly fanciful and raise the question of whether he might be a little credulous.  He suggests that since 2006 the LENR theories have begun to favor weak force interactions over fusion proper.  He mentions in passing a work by Zawodny et al.

The second set of slides are by three individuals at NASA Glenn Research Center.  The slides describe several experiments.

• One that was carried out in 1989, Fralick, Decker and Blue (1989) NASA TM-102430, presumably at NASA, used a Johnson Matthey HP Series palladium membrane hydrogen purifier.  They saw no neutrons, and a 15 C temperature increase when deuterium was used and no increase when hydrogen was used.
• Another, J. Niedra, I. Myers, G. Fralick and R. Baldwin (1996), NASA TM-107167, looked at an H2O-Ni-K2CO3 system, using an inactive cell as a control.  This experiment was negative.
• A third experiment looked at thin palladium films.  Craters were found in D20 and none were seen in H20.  John Wrbanek, Gustave Fralick, Susan Wrbanek,  & Nancy Hall “Investigating Sonoluminescence as a Means of Energy Harvesting,” Chapter 19, Frontiers of Propulsion Science, Millis & Davis (eds), AIAA, pp. 605-637, 2009.

The authors of the second set of slides were involved in some of the experiments the slides describe.  After 1989, LENR was studied primarily at Navy, DARPA and various university labs (not NASA).  Work at NASA started back up in 2009.  There was apparently a positive finding in a 2009 experiment, although this is not apparent from the graphs in the slides.  Publications mentioned include ones by Parmenter and Lamb; Chubb and Chubb; Maly, Vavra and Mills; Widom and Larsen; Hora and Miley; and Kim.  There may be a proof of concept by Mounir Ibrahim, a professor at Ohio State University, using a Stirling engine.  There is a set of full references at the end of the slides.