July 19, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

This is Part 2 of “2001 Oak Ridge Nuclear Cavitation Confirmation Uncovered.”

This is a New Energy Times Special Report. The first part of this series published on July 18, 2013.

Introduction to the Oak Ridge Nuclear Cavitation Experiment

The essential part of the Taleyarkhan group’s nuclear cavitation experiment is a custom-blown glass chamber similar to the one shown below.

The chamber is filled with a test fluid, deuterated acetone, or, in the case of control experiments, normal acetone. Two stimuli react on the chamber. The first is an ultrasonic acoustic wave produced by a piezoelectric driver ring that induces cavitation; the second is a source of energetic nuclear particles that can seed the growth of bubbles. In the Taleyarkhan group’s first experiments, those particles were neutrons from an external device called a pulse neutron generator (PNG), which emitted neutrons in the direction of the chamber in precisely timed intervals.

The acoustic input causes high compression in the chamber, and this leads to a series of rapid bubble growths and collapses. At the collapses, observers see light flashes, a phenomenon known as sonoluminescence.

The Taleyarkhan group summarized the mechanics of the reaction in a 2009 review paper.

“The test liquid is placed in a cylindrical glass test section and driven harmonically with a lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) piezoelectric driver ring attached around the outside surface of the test section,” the authors wrote. “This induces an acoustic standing wave in the test section.”

“The intense implosive collapse of bubbles, including acoustic cavitation bubbles,” the authors wrote, “can lead to extremely high compression-induced pressures and temperatures from shock heating and to the generation of the light flashes known as sonoluminescence (SL). In addition, the violent implosions of bubble clusters produce audible shock waves.

The Taleyarkhan group’s use of multi-bubble sonoluminescence rather than single-bubble sonoluminescence, which was used by its competitors, is the most significant improvement in its method.

Here is a short video clip of a nuclear cavitation experiment performed at Oak Ridge. Each visible event is not an individual bubble but rather clusters of hundreds of bubbles.

“The video clip is mesmerizing,” Taleyarkhan wrote, “if you contemplate the fact that a mere neutron (of mass ~10^-27 kg, as close to zero mass as you can get) produces such a huge macro-mechanical effect that can be seen and heard and, furthermore, serves as a reminder of why and how thermonuclear bombs work as they do.”

Next Part: The Scientific Evidence

______________________________________________________________
Questions? Comments? Submit a Letter to the Editor.

July 17, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

The 18th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science takes place next week at the University of Missouri. The conference is organized by Robert Duncan, vice chancellor for research, and his wife, Annette Sobel, assistant to the provost for strategic opportunities.

Duncan’s offer to host ICCF-18 fills a large void in the field. According to the tradition of rotating continents among ICCF conferences, last year’s ICCF-17 should have been in North America.

But during the discussion at ICCF-16 conference in Chennai, India, no North American researcher was in a position to offer to host the next international cold fusion conference. Nobody had the financial resources or access to sponsors. Instead, the conference took place in Korea.

Funding and recognition has been difficult for these researchers. A significant reason is that many of them give the field the appearance of pseudoscience. There is no scientific evidence for LENR as “cold fusion,” yet many longtime researchers in the field remain wedded to the belief that deuterium nuclei can overcome the Coulomb barrier at appreciable rates at room temperature.

Nevertheless, two significant scientific events have occurred in the last two years with LENR researchers who are independent of the “cold fusion” researchers.

Last year, a LENR colloquium took place at one of the most prestigious nuclear physics institutions in the world, CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research.

On March 22, 2012, CERN hosted an invited colloquium, “Overview of Theoretical and Experimental Progress in Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR),” which took place in CERN’s council chamber.

On Nov. 14, 2012, for the first time in a decade, the American Nuclear Society hosted a low-energy nuclear reaction session. It took place at the ANS Winter meeting in San Diego, Calif. The session was requested by the interim executive director of the ANS.

[DAP errMsgTemplate=”” isLoggedIn=”N”]

Login or Subscribe to remove this notice

Professional Journalism – LENR Facts

Original online content only at New Energy Times

[/DAP]

Continue reading »

July 10, 2013 – By Steven B. Krivit –

John O’Mara Bockris died July 7 of a heart attack after a 20-year battle with cancer. He was 90. Bockris was a giant in low-energy nuclear reaction research and even more so in the general field of electrochemistry.

The tritium discovered by the Bockris group, along with tritium discovered at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in India, was the first nuclear evidence that established LENR as a de facto nuclear process.

His friend and longtime assistant Trish Schulz wrote to New Energy Times on July 7.

"Dr. B. has had an impact on all of our lives, and he will be missed by many," Schulz wrote. "He was loved and cared for greatly by my family, and we shall miss him."

A memorial service is tentatively planned for September. Schulz updated the Wikipedia page for Bockris on July 8, and it is an excellent reference for him and his life’s work. New Energy Times has preserved a PDF copy of that page; it is accessible from our own Bockris Web page.

New Energy Times also has a detailed collection of reference material that chronicles Bockris’ courageous stance and fight for academic freedom at this Web page.