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Intelligence Analyst Gripes to New Energy Times About Publishing Leak

Apr 042013
 
Beverly Barnhart, Defense Intelligence Agency Analyst

Beverly Barnhart, Defense Intelligence Agency Analyst

April 4, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

This morning, Beverly Barnhart, an analyst with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, contacted New Energy Times with demands to remove portions of a news article in which she was quoted. Barnhart threatened to use the government’s public relations and legal departments against New Energy Times.  

On March 28, we quoted an e-mail from Barnhart in our article about the forthcoming Naval Research Laboratory colloquium on “cold fusion,” featuring Robert Duncan, vice chancellor for research and professor of physics at the University of Missouri. (NRL Will Host Colloquium on “Cold Fusion”)

NRL did not announce the colloquium; nor did Duncan. According to sources who contacted New Energy Times, news of the colloquium spread by personal e-mails and telephone calls from the organizers and their supporters, including Barnhart.

This morning, New Energy Times received the following statements from Barnhart in an e-mail:

“Please take my name off your Web site immediately, or I will ask our public affairs organization to remove it.

“We are not allowed to release information to publications without internal review. My personal emails to my colleagues are not for publication. I have nothing to do with this seminar and only forwarded the notice to colleagues.”

Minutes later, we received a telephone call from Barnhart. After we advised her that the call was being recorded, and after we declined her request to reveal our sources, she repeated and escalated her threat to include potential legal action.

“Take my name off your Web site,” Barnhart said, “or I will have my public affairs people contact you and ask you to remove it.

“If it is on your Web site this afternoon, I’ll go to our general counsel and ask them to contact you. Or we can be nice, and you can take it off voluntarily.”

Tom Mehlhorn, Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory

Tom Mehlhorn, Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory

A few minutes later, we received an e-mail from Tom Mehlhorn, superintendent of the Plasma Physics Division at NRL.

“Please remove this article from your Web site,” Mehlhorn wrote. “This is an internal seminar that is NOT open to the public, and your posting based on a forwarded ‘e-mail chain,’ including attributions of people on the list, is inappropriate.”

Three years ago, in August 2009, Barnhart organized a workshop on “cold fusion” and later published a report based on that workshop. New Energy Times reported that in our 2010 article “Two Decades of ‘Cold Fusion.’ ”


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Larsen Explains LENR Radiation-Free Nuclear Energy

Apr 022013
 

Widom-Larsen Diagram of Gamma Suppression April 2, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

The possibility of a new source of radiation-free nuclear energy has just become stronger.

Lewis G. Larsen, the co-developer of the Widom-Larsen theory of LENRs, released a new slide presentation on March 22 that answers significant questions about why deadly gamma radiation is not emitted in low-energy nuclear reactions. New Energy Times spoke with Larsen about the examples of experimental evidence for the gamma suppression he shows in his slides.

Any kind of fusion or neutron-capture reaction that produces significant heat should emit enough gamma radiation to kill anyone in its vicinity. Throughout the history of this field, critics have wondered, If it’s really nuclear, then where are the gammas?

Going back to 1989, one of the most well-known physicists in the world, Richard Garwin, a senior scientist with IBM, was the first prominent critic to bet against what some people thought was “cold fusion.”

Garwin is an IBM Fellow Emeritus, was director of the IBM Watson Laboratory, director of applied research at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, and a member of the IBM corporate technical committee. He is also a consultant to the federal government on nuclear technology.

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Six years ago, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Francisco, New Energy Times asked Garwin whether he had seen the Widom-Larsen theory papers. He had. But Garwin seemed frustrated because Larsen had not disclosed details of the gamma-shielding process when Garwin asked a question about it.

Larsen told New Energy Times on March 26, 2013, why he delayed responding to Garwin’s question.

“I have the highest regard for Garwin’s reputation as a brilliant physicist, but IBM files more patents than any other company in the world,” Larsen said. “Our patent application hadn’t even published yet. Why would a tiny company in Chicago like mine want to take that kind of risk when they have the financial resources to quickly file hundreds of patents on LENRs? That would’ve been foolish on our part.”

Larsen later disclosed the key details in his U.S. patent #7,893,414 B2, which issued on Feb. 22, 2011. Over the years, other people asked more questions about the gamma-shielding mechanism, and Larsen gave those answers last week in his slides.

Two paragraphs in his slides contain the key text that explains the gamma suppression for prompt gammas. It is excerpted below and slightly edited for clarity.

Continue reading »

NRL Will Host Colloquium on “Cold Fusion”

Mar 282013
 

NRL Cold Fusion Colloquium Duncan University of Missouri
March 28, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

The Plasma Physics Division of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., will host a colloquium on “cold fusion” on April 10, according to an e-mail and announcement distributed by Beverly Barnhart, an analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency, and obtained by New Energy Times. The e-mail was written by Barnhart, and the announcement was written by Mary Austin at NRL.

Robert Duncan, vice chancellor for research and professor of physics at the University of Missouri, is the featured speaker. In 2009, Duncan endorsed “cold fusion” on CBS’s “60 Minutes” program “Cold Fusion Is Hot Again.” He is the chairman of the 18th International Conference on Cold Fusion, to be held at the University of Missouri this summer.

“Cold fusion is still alive … in the academic world, and hopefully Dr. Duncan will provide an update on what Missouri is doing,” Barnhart wrote. “University of Missouri, along with Purdue University and the University of Illinois as partners, is reportedly hosting this summer’s international conference on cold fusion.”

Last week, New Energy Times asked Nicholas Giordano, the head of the Purdue University Physics Department, in what capacity Purdue was involved in ICCF-18.

“The listing of Purdue University as a Partner of that conference was an error,” Giordano wrote. “Purdue University is not a sponsor or partner of the conference, and that should now be clear on the conference Web site, which I believe was corrected [on March 21]. One of the physics faculty at Purdue [, cold fusion theorist Yeong Kim,] is a co-chair of the conference, but neither the university nor the Physics Department itself is connected.”

Instead, the ICCF-18 Web site now says that Missouri is partnering with the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment and National Instruments Corp. for the conference.

NRL Colloquium Announcement

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CBC-TV Investigates Former LENR Researcher Russ George

Mar 262013
 

Russ George Former LENR Researcher
March 26, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

On Friday evening, Darcy Russell George, a former LENR researcher, will be featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s “Fifth Estate” program. The program is an investigative news show similar to CBS’s “60 Minutes” in the U.S. CBC will be focusing primarily on George’s latest attempts to sequester carbon in the ocean.

The show likely will be viewable only in Canada. A short promotional clip is available on the Fifth Estate Web site.

CBC producers asked investigative journalist Steven B. Krivit, who specializes in LENR (low-energy nuclear reaction research), which was once believed to be “cold fusion,” to speak on the activities and strategies of George.

Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, George was involved in several “cold fusion” research projects, usually as a guest technician. He has no college degree and no professional training as a scientist.

But it was George’s more recent non-energy-related activities that attracted the attention of CBC. Last year, he dumped 100 tons of iron ore in the ocean, allegedly to help the environment and make money from carbon credits. Continue reading »

LENR Researcher Biberian Has Limited Answers About Cold Fusion

Mar 222013
 

New Cold Fusion Book by Biberian
March 22, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

New Energy Times interviewed LENR (low-energy nuclear reaction) researcher Jean-Paul Biberian by e-mail between Jan. 13, 2013, and Feb. 1, 2013. He has written a new book, La Fusion Dans Tous ses États (Fusion in All Its Forms). Biberian is one of the most senior researchers in the field and has a long history with “cold fusion.” Biberian is reluctant to abandon the term, identity and concept of “cold fusion” and, in its place, recognize the research as LENR. In this candid scientific discussion, Biberian explains why.

Biberian blames the lack of progress in the field – 24 years old tomorrow – on the unwillingness of mainstream science to consider the claim of “cold fusion.” Yet when New Energy Times asked Biberian specific questions to support his claim of “cold fusion,” he gave conflicting answers.

He also wrote that Peter Hagelstein, an associate professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had a theory that supported the claim of “cold fusion.” Biberian made several claims about the validity of Hagelstein’s theory. New Energy Times asked Biberian specific questions about the theory, but Biberian did not answer some important questions.

Biberian’s perception of credible support for Hagelstein’s theory is common among LENR experimentalists.

Last year, on Feb. 5, 2012, New Energy Times sent an e-mail to Hagelstein and asked to learn more about his theoretical ideas. We placed telephone calls, left messages on his voice mail and spoke with his administrative assistant Susan Davco. Hagelstein did not respond. What we know of his “cold fusion” theory work is on our Hagelstein Theory Portal Web page.

Even if a viable theory does not exist for the idea of “cold fusion,” that doesn’t mean “cold fusion” doesn’t exist. It’s not sufficient to look at the idea of “cold fusion” from only a theoretical perspective, because theories only guide and experiments decide; this is the scientific method. From an empirical perspective, however, the data are inconsistent with the idea of “cold fusion.” (See these articles: “Investigation of Michael McKubre’s M4 Experiment” and “Cold Fusion Is Neither.”)

Biberian is aware that LENR phenomena may also be explained by non-fusion mechanisms such as weak-interaction and neutron-capture processes.

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