Settle in, CERN the multinational research group based in Europe had a colloquium on Low Energy Nuclear Reactions last Thursday.  There was no big news, but there is interesting news out of Japan.  The file downloads are a treasure trove of useful information.

To start is the 40-page PDF presentation by Yogendra Srivastava from the University of Perugia.  The file is a set of the slides shown during the presentation and is complete enough to get a good feel for the narrative.  This is the first complete enough and extensive enough presentation to put real confidence into the Widom Preperata – Larsen theory(s).  The theory(s) may well turn out to be the facts, and if the connections Srivastava uses turn out to be accurate metaphors, the chance to inform the public is looking up and could very well prompt some public support.

Basic LENR or Cold Fusion Tabletop Setup. Click image for the largest view.

Srivastava gets the technology overview going by page 9 and over the following ten pages covers the most likely and experimentally validated energy inputs.  From electricity and magnetic to elastic piezoelectric, the prevailing influence of a theoretical view from Widom the evidence is compelling that with a good enough kit many experimenters can get in on the progress.

Celani gave an overview of background history of significant Low Energy Nuclear Reaction experiments for the CERN observers running 32 pages.  The PDF file is strong enough that it would do for a download and saving for answering those you’d meet who’d like to get up to date in a brief way.

Of particular note Celani identifies 6 key unanswered questions worth a quick repeat in your humble writers preferred order.

1.    What is the root cause of experimental irreproducibility? This problem deserves answered for multiple reasons.
2.    Is there one mechanism active or are there multiple processes?  A question that leads to:
3.    Are the reactions only nuclear, only atomic or both?
4.    Which external factor could be used to initiate and control LENR?
5.    What, if anything, is common to electrochemical and gas loading experiments that have exhibited excess power and heat?
6.    Do the reactions occur only on the surface of materials or also in the bulk (volume) of the materials?

As a set the order may be subjected to more questions that individual experimenters seek to answer as they make progress.  Celani does make the leading matters to outside observers pretty clear.  As the possible answers get closer to firm conclusions the news will really heat up.  Celani winds up with an appeal for an international, multidisciplinary approach.  The idea has merit as well as sparking reservations.  Still, the world needs answers and the questions that follow more than a giant research project.

Celani and Srivastava were both expected to at the colloquium so the news centers on a new player: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Headquarters from Japan. Keep in mind the Japanese folks never fell for the cold fusion assassination that went on in the west.  Instead they worked along, making progress.

Mitsubishi Graphic of LENT Action. Click image for the largest view.

Mitsubishi is saying, “D2 gas permeation through nano-structured Pd multilayer film makes it possible to induce nuclear transmutation under low pressure and low temperature condition.”  That was followed by the notice the Toyota R&D Center, Osaka Univ., Iwate Univ., etc. replicated the transmutation experiments of Cs into Pr.

LENR is going commercial?

Mitsubishi is hoping for three applications, nuclear transmutation of radioactive waste, production of rare earth materials and a portable nuclear energy source.

This news while subtle is quite interesting.  The folks at Mitsubishi are looking far beyond palladium, platinum and nickel.  That begs the question – “What is it they already know?” They seem to have an answer that stimulates a far-reaching implication – there may well be Low Energy Nuclear Transmutations or “LENT” across a much larger part of the element table that any of us have been thinking so far.

Srivastava offered a reminder of Enrico Fermi who famously said, “Give me enough neutrons and I shall give you the Entire Periodic Table.”  Evidently the huge Japanese conglomerates are taking the Fermi dictum seriously with encouraging results.

That LENT term seems to be a new acronym we’ll need to keep at hand.  Srivastava used it as well as Mitsubishi.  The term clearly implies rather solidly that Cold Fusion to LENR is moving on with LENT as well.

Perhaps the colloquium served as a wakeup call to the folks at CERN.  The private industry work surely raised eyebrows.  Rossi and Defkalion aside, cold fusion to LENR to LENT is getting more interesting by the month.


Comments

6 Comments so far

  1. Matt Musson on March 26, 2012 9:49 AM

    Fermi was correct. And, with the advent of low cost high efficiency linear accelerators – I am surprised that more labs are not transmuting elements. After all, it has long been known that certain Mercury isotopes transmute into gold. Maybe the cost of neutrons has come down enough to make this a profitable concern.

    Who knows? Maybe some college lab assistants are already transmuting gold and platinum in the overnight hours? Maybe that’s why the Cern super collider can’t find the God Particle because they cut a secret deal with the Gnomes of Zurich.

  2. kwhilborn on March 26, 2012 9:52 AM

    Excellent article. Thank-you.

  3. Benjamin Cole on March 26, 2012 2:42 PM

    You mean experiments can’t be replicated? And what does that mean?

  4. CERN Could be About to Start Researching LENR Following Recent Colloquium | RefineryNews.com on March 28, 2012 11:55 AM

    […] Source: CERN Has A LENR Colloquium […]

  5. The Latest on Fusion | Earth's Energy on March 29, 2012 1:57 PM

    […] Energy and Fuel has a technical report on a Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) colloquium that was held last week in Europe. The discussion was held at CERN, the European Organization for […]

  6. Desmond on September 5, 2013 7:06 PM

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