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5. Revisions to Previously Reported MeV/4He Values
By Steven B. Krivit
For 21 years, a subgroup of LENR researchers has hypothesized a D+D —> 4He + ~24 MeV (heat) “cold fusion” reaction to explain the excess heat and helium-4 measured in some LENR experiments.
In Issue #29, New Energy Times reported several values of MeV/4He from published experiments in the LENR field. We are now reviewing and, in some cases, significantly restating many of those values.
U.S. Navy - China Lake (Miles Group)
New Energy Times has not re-evaluated these data. We tentatively reaffirm these as 39, 25, 44, 88, 83, 52 and 62 MeV/4He.
SRI International (McKubre Group)
In Issue 29, we had labeled a set of values from experiments by Michael McKubre (SRI International) as 32(31), 38.34, 34.45 and 22.85 MeV/4He.
The first value, from the 1998 Case experiment, reported in 2000 in [1], remains unchanged.
The other three values were allegedly from the 1994 M4 experiment performed at SRI. [2] However, we had stated the MeV/4He values based on a later paper by Hagelstein and McKubre et al. from 2004. [3] As we have explained in another article in this issue of New Energy Times, “The Emergence of an Incoherent Explanation for D-D ‘Cold Fusion,’" these values are incorrect.
The 2004 paper did not explicitly state the MeV/4He values. These values were a significant basis for the group’s D-D "cold fusion" reaction claim. The authors left readers to calculate the values by themselves. The omission was most likely intentional.
Based on our investigation and on information in the original 1998 report, we are now restating the only two values shown in the 1998 report. They are 41% of 22.4MeV/4He, which comes to 9.2MeV, and 147% of 22.4MeV/4He, which comes to 32.9 MeV/4He.
It is now clear that the second value agrees remarkably closely with the 1998 SRI Case replication experiment, which also showed 32 +/- 13 MeV/4He. The authors explicitly calculated and displayed this value in their papers. [2, 3]
As we showed in “The Emergence of an Incoherent Explanation for D-D ‘Cold Fusion,’” the 1994 M4 experiment was reanalyzed by authors in 2000 and used to explain why the 1998 Case experiment didn't explain D-D "cold fusion." Ironically, all along, M4 (32.9 MeV/4He) had provided a strongly confirmatory value for the Case experiment (32 +/- 13 MeV/4He).
ENEA Frascati (De Ninno Group)
After careful review of an experiment by the group led by Antonella De Ninno (ENEA Frascati), reported in its 2002 paper [4], New Energy Times retracts all of the MeV/4He values we reported in Issue #29 for this experiment.
However, the measurements of helium in this experiment hold strong. We are retracting only our statements about the measured excess heat relative to the measured helium.
To their credit, the authors never stated claims of specific MeV/He values in their paper. This was our own interpretation based on the data presented in their paper and our communication with the authors.
We have learned, through a better understanding of their paper, that the authors did not perform calorimetry. Rather, they used the helium measurements to back-calculate the excess heat they would have expected from the amount of helium they measured, assuming the hypothesis of a D+D —> 4He + 23.8 MeV (heat) reaction.
The authors appear to have performed a brilliant experiment which demonstrates the nuclear production of helium. As well, the melted cathode from this experiment provides compelling evidence of a nuclear energy process.
ENEA Frascati (Violante Group)
New Energy Times previously attempted to derive the MeV/4He values from experiment C3 from Vittorio Violante's group (ENEA Frascati) because the group's authors failed to explicitly state them. We review this matter in depth in another article in this issue, “Inexplicable D-D ‘Cold Fusion’ Claims From Italy.”
Slide presented at American Physical Society meeting, March 2005. Caption states, "The expected amount of increasing of 4He is in accordance with the energy gain by assuming a D+D = 4He + 24MeV reaction. 4He stripping from cathode increases the correlation with produced energy." [5]
We now realize that the authors' omission of the MeV/4He values was probably intentional.
Our previous calculations were incorrect. Our new calculations show 16.30, 2.95, 17.83 MeV/4He from these experiments which are not in agreement with a D+D = 4He + 24 MeV (heat) reaction. Or, if authors had not yet accounted for background, 41.91, 12.48 and 37.45 MeV/4He. Or, if authors had not yet accounted for background, 41.91, 12.48 and 37.45 MeV/4He.
However, there are too many problems with the way this experiment and its values have been reported by its authors. New Energy Times retracts all of the MeV/4He values we reported in Issue #29 for this group's experiment.
The "stripping" idea mentioned by Violante is the helium retention/release hypothesis (as New Energy Times discussed in “The Emergence of an Incoherent Explanation for D-D ‘Cold Fusion’”), invented by the authors of [1].
Curiously, half a year earlier, at the October/November 2004 11th International Conference on Cold Fusion in Marseilles, France, Violante's stripping claim for experiment C3 did not appear (image opens in new window). Half a year after the 2005 American Physical Society meeting, as seen in a paper presented at the November/December 2005 ICCF-12 meeting in Yokohama, Japan, the stripping claim disappeared (image opens in new window)without explanation. [6]
LENR research is moving forward, albeit slowly, and gaining more attention. LENR researchers can aid this progress by carefully examining assumptions they may have made and keeping an open mind for new insights.
References
1. McKubre, M.; Tanzella, F.; Tripodi, P.; Hagelstein, P. "The Emergence of a Coherent Explanation for Anomalies Observed in D/Pd and H/Pd Systems; Evidence for 4He and 3He Production." 8th International Conference on Cold Fusion. 2000. Lerici (La Spezia), Italy: Italian Physical Society, Bologna, Italy.
2. Development of Energy Production Systems from Heat Produced in Deuterated Metals - Energy Production Processes in Deuterated Metals. Volume 1. TR-107843-V1. Passell, T. (project manager). McKubre, M.; Crouch-Baker, S.; Hauser, A.; Jevtic, N.; Smedley, S.I.; Tanzella, F.; Williams, M.; Wing, S. (principal investigators). Bush, B.; McMohon, F.; Srinivasan, M.; Wark, A.; Warren, D. (non-SRI contributors). June 1998.
3. Hagelstein, P.; McKubre, M.; Nagel, D.; Chubb, T.; Hekman, R. "New Physical Effects In Metal Deuterides." Submitted to the 2004 U.S. Department of Energy LENR Review.
4. De Ninno, A.; Frattolillo, A.; Rizzo, A.; Del Giudice, E.; Preparata, G. "Experimental Evidence of 4He Production in a Cold Fusion Experiment, (Report 41)." ENEA - Unita Tecnico Scientifica Fusione Centro Ricerche. Frascati, Rome. 2002.
5. M.M. Apicella, G. Mazzitelli, F. Sarto, E. Santoro, V. Violante (ENEA Frascati Research Center); H. Branover, A. El Boher, S. Lesin, T. Zilov (Energetics, Ltd.); I. Dardik (Energetics LLC); E. Castagna, C. Sibilia (La Sapienza University);
M. McKubre, F. Tanzella (SRI International). "Reproducibility of Excess of Power and Evidence of 4He in Palladium Foils Loaded with Deuterium," Presented at the American Physical Society Meeting, Los Angeles, Calif., Mar. 24, 2005
6. Apicella, M.; Castagna, E.; Capobianco, L.; D'Aulerio, L.; Mazzitelli, G.; Sarto, F.; Rosada, A.; Santoro, E.; Violante, V.; McKubre, M. C. H.; Tanzella, F.; Sibilia, C. "Some Recent Results at ENEA," Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. 2005. Yokohama, Japan.
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