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Dec 082011
 

On Nov. 21, I received a phone call from Avra Michelson, an analyst with MITRE Corp. Michelson explained that MITRE Corp. is a federally funded research and development center that is sanctioned by Congress to work in the public interest exclusively with government. It helps government with some of its hardest systems engineering problems and with its work with the private sector.

Michelson told me that she was doing background research on LENR on behalf of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. She invited me to be interviewed as a subject-matter expert on LENR.

“We are asking questions about the field to eminent scientists and experts like yourself who have been active participants in the field,” Michelson said. “IARPA’s goal is to fund and help accelerate high-risk kinds of research for the intelligence community.”

The telephone interview took place on Dec. 1. Michelson’s colleague Chrissy Vu also participated in the call.

Click here to continue.

Dec 082011
 

In the last few years, despite the fact that, or perhaps because, my 2008 American Chemical Society presentation (slides, audio) is clear and explicit about the distinction between “cold fusion” and low-energy nuclear reactions, many “cold fusion” proponents have spent an inordinate amount of time muddying the waters. Even though many of them are technically capable of following the scientific distinctions, they still behave as though the loss of the term “cold fusion” represents a loss of their dream and of recognition of their substantial participation in a potentially new energy paradigm. For unknown reasons, many of the people who have been fighting the “War Against Cold Fusion” appear to be locked into a siege mentality and have been unable to shift their thinking as better facts and understanding of the field have emerged.

It therefore seems worthwhile to offer an analogy to help nonspecialists see the distinction between “cold fusion” and LENR.

The concept of the unicorn comes from European folklore. In general, it closely resembles a horse. It looks like a horse, walks like a horse and, ahem, talks like a horse. But the unicorn has a single horn that is said to have magical powers. And one more thing: It is a mythical animal.

The concept of “cold fusion” developed out of the research of Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann and the community of researchers they inspired. But much like Columbus when he headed east from Spain and then thought he found a new way to India, Pons, Fleischmann and their followers were mistaken, but only partially.

The amount of heat generated from the Pons-Fleischmann discovery resembled a nuclear reaction. The tritium and helium produced were characteristic of a nuclear reaction. A research community developed as a result of the Pons-Fleischmann discovery. Central to this community is a utopian concept and hope for a world fueled by a new kind of clean nuclear reaction.

But there was a subtle but significant difference with the underlying physical mechanism: It was based primarily on weak interactions and neutron-capture processes, not fusion. Despite the growing body of experimental evidence that revealed this distinction, and despite all the attempts that Pons and Fleischmann’s followers made to try to make LENR look like fusion, no amount of varnish could change the fact: “Cold fusion” too, was a myth. But LENR, which does not presume or assert a fusion mechanism, is real.

Dec 072011
 

Akito Takahashi, a retired professor of nuclear engineering from Osaka University, and now affiliated with Technova Inc., is shifting his thinking about low-energy nuclear reactions.

For two decades, Takahashi, a LENR experimentalist and theorist, has been exclusively proposing strong force reactions in which deuterons theoretically overcome the Coulomb barrier at room temperature.

In the abstracts for the forthcoming Japan CF Research Society conference, Takahashi discusses the weak interaction p +e –> n + v and the neutron capture process 3p + n –> 3He + p.

Two decades ago, LENR theorists initially considered weak interactions and neutron capture process to explain the experimental observations in LENRs.

But it wasn’t until 2005 when Allan Widom and Lewis Larsen published their
Ultra-Low-Momentum Neutron Catalyzed Theory of LENRs that the concept of weak interactions began to make sense.

http://newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2011/20111207TakahashiWeakInteractions.jpg

Dec 052011
 

Yan Kucherov, a low-energy nuclear reactions researcher who had worked with the Naval Research Laboratory as well as with ENECO, died early Sunday morning in Alexandria, Va, Dec. 4, 2011 after a battle with cancer. He was 61.

http://newenergytimes.com/v2/images/KucherovJan-byEW-w30.jpg
Yan Kucherov – Photo by Ed Wall

Graham K, Hubler, head of the materials and sensors branch at NRL remembered Kucherov with fondness.

“Yan was a true friend, outstanding human being and a talented colleague whose honor and integrity knew no bounds,” Hubler wrote. “He will be sorely missed at NRL and by colleagues around the world.”

[Updated Dec. 7: Yan R. Kucherov, Born in Kharkov, U.S.S.R. on Feb. 23, 1951, Departed on Dec. 4, 2011 and resided in Alexandria, VA.  Services: Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm]

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