Talk-Polywell.org

Rather than squabbling over the merits of studying cold fusion or jumping to the conclusion that excess heat produced at room temperature is a nuclear reaction, the scientific community needs to back up — all the way to the top of the scientific method.

That’s the opinion of Rob Duncan, vice chancellor of research at the University of Missouri. He is in the early stages of pitching a plan to establish a national research program that would help scientists study tabletop energy.

Duncan is optimistic higher-ups might be willing to pay attention, even in tight budget times. At a conference in August, representatives from the Naval Research Laboratory presented findings from several experiments where excess heat was produced in a laboratory.

“It’s a difficult time to start anything new, but in my opinion, it’s really very compelling to try to understand the origins of these unknown effects,” Duncan said. “Once we understand what’s causing this excess heat, then we can know whether or not it can be engineered into larger energy systems.”

Steven Krivit, senior editor of New Energy Times and editor in chief of the Wiley Nuclear Energy Encyclopedia, has written about this topic for more than a decade and thinks the fundamental question already has been answered.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/201 ... le-solved/

Unless there has been newer results published, what I am aware of is that a few years ago the Naval research people detected heat, and recorded pits in CR39 plastic (that is used as radiation badges- effect is similar to photo badges) that were suggestive of neutron or proton hits consistent with nuclear reactions. The problem was that their controls were nonexistent. Any neutrons should have been easily detectable outside the vessel by conventional neutron counters. If high energy protons, or alphas, they may not have been detected outside of the vessel due to the short penetration distance of protons and alphas. The problem was that there was criticism that chemical reactions could also cause similar pits in the plastic due to ions (like chloride) in the solution.

I would speculate that coating the immersed plastic in a thin coating of glass or even varnish might mitigate such possible chemical reactions. And of course controls without the deuterium present would also be revealing. Whether they have done any of this is the question.

Dan Tibbets