Evidence for a Possible New LENR Energy Source

SPAWAR image of LENR cathode showing melted palladium and possible evidence of flash boiling

Nov. 15, 2016 – By Steven B. Krivit –

I received a question last week from Tony T., a reader of my book Hacking the Atom in the United Kingdom.

“Have you ever compiled a list of the data showing anomalous heat, as figures preferably? I have seen the article by Kunimatsu et al., 1992, which contains several hundred,” Tony wrote. “Are there any equivalents?”

Here are a couple of basic points to answer this excellent question.

1. This is a new field of science with unknown possibilities.
2. LENR has not yet been commercialized by anyone, although such claims have been made for at least two decades.
3. It is premature to derive any firm conclusions from the intermittent and poorly controlled collection of excess-heat observations, however numerous they are.
4. Experiments have shown melting and, in some cases, boiling of metals, indicating temperatures of 4,000 — 5,000 degrees C, at microscopic surface sites that resemble craters. Using secondary ion mass spectroscopy, researchers have detected nuclear transmutation products near these sites. These results were produced by using just a few Watts of input power. That is direct experimental evidence (circumventing arguments about calorimetry) for a potential new source of energy.
5. This experimental data is theoretically explained by neutron captures and beta decays, which suggest energy release of several MeV per reaction, which is millions of times larger than any chemical reaction. See pages 284-285 of Hacking the Atom.
6. Pages 387-390, about power density, are also helpful.
7. The instances of thermal runaway, excess heat produced without any input power, are also illustrative; see pages 391-393 of Hacking the Atom.

Melted tungsten from cathode in Cirillo-Iorio experiment

Please also see the related article “Correcting the LENR Record (Chemical & Engineering News).”