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Many new nuclear phenomena have been discovered and verified in condensed matter systems over the last decade. One class of such discoveries is well understood, since both the observed nuclear emissions and the organizing principles that lead to the initiation of the nuclear process are experimentally verified. Pyroelectric fusion has been discovered in certain crystals[1], piezoelectric-induced beta particle sources have been realized[2], fusion-based neutron sources have been developed in specially prepared titanium that is loaded with deuterium[3], and large thunderstorms have been observed to emit antimatter (positrons)[4]. In addition, muon-catalyzed fusion has been observed in the 1950's and subsequently well understood in liquid deuterium / tritium mixtures[5]. Devices that are based upon some of these new phenomena are being developed commercially.
The basic physics of another class of empirical observations, however, is still not well understood. In 1989, Fleischmann and Pons (FP) reported on observing a large .excess heat. release from palladium foils that were heavily loaded with deuterium, but immediate efforts to replicate their results were unsuccessful. Since that time, exhaustive work at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC has verified that this large anomalous heat release is real, and that radio frequency emissions accompany the excess heat effect in these materials. Researchers at ENEA, the National Energy and Environment Laboratory of Italy, and scores of other laboratories world-wide, have reproduced the FP Effect as well. In February 2012, MU initiated an aggressive new research program within SKINR that is designed to determine the physical origin of these interesting new empirical observations, and we are now beginning to publish some initial results[3,6]. We are applying a wide range of experimental techniques to this effort that utilize our research reactor for neutron scattering studies and our cyclotron in searches for associated nuclear anomalies. We are also investigating the materials characteristics that are important to the successful observation of these anomalous heat releases.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroelectric_fusion
2. https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10355/15943/research.pdf?sequence=2
3. http://newenergytimes.com/v2/conferences/2012/ICCF17/papers/Prelas-Neutron-Emission-from-Cryogenic-ICCF17-pp.pdf
4. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/fermi-thunderstorms.html
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muon-catalyzed_fusion
6. http://newenergytimes.com/v2/conferences/2012/ICCF17/papers/Lukosi-Diamond-Based-Charged-Particle-ICCF17-pp.pdf
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