The future of low-energy nuclear reaction research at the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego, Calif., is at risk.

New Energy Times recently learned that a November 2011 story written by journalist John Brandon, published by Fox News, has led to potentially serious problems for this research group. The story was about Andrea Rossi’s “Energy Catalyzer” and suggested that it could be a “complete hoax.” We are still trying to learn more about the SPAWAR situation and will report details as soon as we can.

Throughout the last 23 years, a small team of low-energy nuclear reactions researchers at the SPAWAR lab, and recently in association with researchers from JWK International, a private company in Annandale, Va., has demonstrated some of the best experimental research in the LENR research field. The group has an impressive collection of published research and successful results in LENRs, far more than any other government lab, including the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Two members of the SPAWAR group have retired in the last few years.

Frank Gordon (SPAWAR, retired), Pamela-Mosier Boss (SPAWAR), Larry Forsley (JWK) at 2007 American Physical Society Meeting Photo: S.B. Krivit

Yesterday, New Energy Times obtained a document with an updated listing of the group’s peer-reviewed work in LENRs, and we revised our index of its work on the New Energy Times Web site.

The document also contains a synopsis of the group’s work. An excerpt is shown below. Click here for the full document.

“Scientists at the U.S. Navy SPAWAR Systems Center-Pacific (SSC-Pacific), and its predecessors, in conjunction with JWK International Corporation, have had extraordinary success in publishing LENR papers in peer-reviewed journals. This success hasn’t come easily and is due to several factors. One key reason was the courage of the SSC-Pacific upper management for twenty years in allowing scientists to conduct research and publish results in a controversial field. The few journal editors who had the fortitude to consider our work also contributed to this success. The reviewers also played a role in publishing our LENR-related papers. A multitude of reviewers, many outside the LENR field, had to put aside their biases and look objectively at our data. In turn, the reviewers’ relentless concerns forced us to tenaciously address their issues.

“As early as 1991, we began exploring nuclear effects, beginning with x-ray film and later measuring tritium, then on to charged particles and neutrons using solid-state nuclear track detectors. We have also performed thermal imaging, and a colleague carried out calorimetry. He found that the Pd/D co-deposition surface exceeds the energy performance of bulk Pd cathodes. Subsequent papers examined elemental transmutation, effects of external fields, and measurements of fast neutron energy and their source. The majority of our work over the past decade has dealt with nuclear effects in the Pd/D system.

“Through our research and these papers, we have sought to identify, characterize and elucidate the underlying LENR mechanisms. Ours has been a collaborative effort with colleagues around the globe. To date, the SSC-Pacific/JWK team has published twenty-nine refereed papers in eleven journals and two book chapters spanning 21 years. We have given more than twice as many conference talks and other presentations as well. This is a brief synopsis of the published publications.”

Stanislaw Szpak (SPAWAR, retired) - Photo: S.B. Krivit

In addition to this impressive line of scientific publication, the SPAWAR/JWK group has also been recognized in the news media for it’s pioneering work in LENR. Here are references to about one hundred news stories from around the world.

New Scientist
Reasonable Doubt
Neutron Tracks Revive Hopes for Cold Fusion
Houston Chronicle
Navy Scientist Announces Possible Cold Fusion Reactions
American Chemical Society
‘Cold Fusion’ Rebirth? New Evidence For Existence Of Controversial Energy Source
China Daily
U.S. Scientists in Possible Cold Fusion Breakthrough
New Energy Times
Navy San Diego SPAWAR Group Continues to Break Publishing Barrier
Extraordinary Evidence
Extraordinary Courage: Report on Some LENR Presentations at the 2007 American Physical Society Meeting
90 More Press Clippings from Around the World:
http://newenergytimes.com/v2/inthenews/2009/Q1/ACS-LENR-PressClips.zip

Click Here for the Summary Report/Conclusion

Yesterday, New Energy Times reported that Wellesley Hills, Mass., low-energy nuclear reactions researcher Mitchell Swartz made a misleading claim on his personal Web site.

“This JET Energy NANOR(TM) demonstrated a significant energy gain greater than 10,” Swartz wrote.

New Energy Times had received a tip from a LENR researcher that the gain was 18 milliwatts.

Today, another LENR researcher provided us with Swartz’s data. The first researcher was off, but not by much. It was 80 milliwatts, not 18.

When Swartz published his claim on his Web site, he failed to tell readers – many of whom are new to LENR – that his claim was in milliwatts. This was a crucial omission because, for the past year, most of the news in LENR has been dominated by the extraordinary claims of “Energy Catalyzer” inventor Andrea Rossi, who has made claims in megawatts.

Less significant, but still important, was that Swartz failed to tell readers that the excess-heat period ran for only three minutes.

Swartz’s results are no different from thousands of other LENR experiments in the last 23 years. A LENR researcher who requested anonymity was surprised that Swartz would report this as a significant result.

“There are three graphs,” the researcher wrote. “The third one is the only understandable one. Swartz’s demonstration was showing an efficiency of 10, which sounds good, but his peak power output is only 80 milliwatts! That’s right: MILLIWATTS!

“In 23 years, he has yet to sustain anything more than 1 watt. There is little in Swartz’s work to get excited about.”

The second researcher, who provided Swartz’s slides today, wrote this comment to me in an e-mail:

“When you look at the data, you can see, barely, a 1 degree C temperature rise for about three minutes, using about 12 mW of input power to produce less than 100 milliwatts of heat. This is not a breakthrough.”

(Click here for larger image)

Swartz bypassed scientific protocol when he announced his claim on his Web site. Had he followed proper scientific communication protocol, as most LENR researchers do, he would have been required to provide at least the following:

1. Maximum excess-heat power level.
2. Percent of excess heat relative to input power.
3. Duration of excess-heat period or excess energy.

A good example of well-described excess heat results is SRI International electrochemist Michael McKubre’s graph on page 227 of the American Chemical Society “Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Sourcebook.”

Table Courtesy M. McKubre. Source: McKubre, M.C.H., Tanzella, F.L., Dardik, I., El Boher, A., Zilov, T., Greenspan, E., Sibilia, C. and Violante, V., “Replication of Condensed Matter Heat Production,” Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Sourcebook, Marwan, Jan, and Krivit, Steven B., eds., American Chemical Society/Oxford University Press, Washington, D.C.,ISBN 978-0-8412-6966-8, August 2008

In 2010, New Energy Times began an investigation into SRI International electrochemist Michael McKubre’s experiment “M4.” In the preceding decade, McKubre had presented this experiment as the best proof for “cold fusion.”

In our investigation, we found that McKubre gradually changed, added and deleted data points and values in “M4.” McKubre made all these changes without scientific explanation, most without notification.

McKubre is one of the most qualified electrochemists who has worked in the field of low-energy nuclear reactions. He and his former group set the standard in the 1990s for precision measurement of excess heat in LENR experiments. They designed first-principles calorimeters and performed meticulous, temporally correlated measurements of helium production in LENR cells.

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