They cited other evidence for nuclear reactions including X-rays, tritium (another form of hydrogen), and excess heat. We now have evidence that there are neutrons present in these LENR reactions." "If you have fusion going on, then you have to have neutrons. "People have always asked 'Where's the neutrons?'" Mosier-Boss says. Importantly, Mosier-Boss and colleagues believe that the neutrons originated in nuclear reactions, perhaps from the combining or fusing deuterium nuclei. The researchers say that the track marks were made by subatomic particles released when neutrons smashed into the plastic. The scientists then used a special plastic, CR-39, to capture and track any high-energy particles that may have been emitted during reactions, including any neutrons emitted during the fusion of deuterium atoms.Īt the end of the experiment, they examined the plastic with a microscope and discovered patterns of "triple tracks," tiny-clusters of three adjacent pits that appear to split apart from a single point. Researchers passed electric current through the solution, causing a reaction within seconds. A single atom of deuterium contains one neutron and one proton in its nucleus. In the new study, Mosier-Boss and colleagues inserted an electrode composed of nickel or gold wire into a solution of palladium chloride mixed with deuterium or "heavy water" in a process called co-deposition. One of their problems involved extreme difficulty in using conventional electronic instruments to detect the small number of neutrons produced in the process, researchers say. A stalwart cadre of scientists persisted, however, seeking solid evidence that nuclear reactions can occur at low temperatures. Pons and Fleishmann, however, claimed achieving nuclear fusion at comparatively "cold" room temperatures - in a simple tabletop laboratory device termed an electrolytic cell.īut other scientists could not reproduce their results, and the whole field of research declined. Everyone thought that it would require a sophisticated new genre of nuclear reactors able to withstand temperatures of tens of millions of degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists had been striving for years to tap that power on Earth to produce electricity from an abundant fuel called deuterium that can be extracted from seawater. Fusion is the energy source of the sun and the stars. The first report on "cold fusion," presented in 1989 by Martin Fleishmann and Stanley Pons, was a global scientific sensation. "To our knowledge, this is the first scientific report of the production of highly energetic neutrons from an LENR device." Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego, Calif. "Our finding is very significant," says study co-author and analytical chemist Pamela Mosier-Boss, Ph.D., of the U.S. The report, which injects new life into this controversial field, will be presented March 23 in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the American Chemical Society's 237th National Meeting.* Low-energy nuclear reactions could potentially provide 21st Century society a limitless and environmentally-clean energy source for generating electricity, researchers say.
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