POSSIBLE NEW APPLICATIONS OF LOW-ENERGY NUCLEAR REACTIONS

By: Hal Fox and Patrick Bailey

An updated and revised version of a paper originally submitted in May 1997 to the 1997 Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, the 32nd IECEC, held July 27 - August 1, 1997, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Posted to the INE Website with the permission of the authors.

POSSIBLE NEW APPLICATIONS OF LOW-ENERGY NUCLEAR REACTIONS

Hal Fox
Fusion Information Center, Inc.
P.O. Box 58639
Salt Lake City, Utah 84158
801-583-6232; FAX 801-583-2963

Patrick G. Bailey
Institute for New Energy
P.O. Box 201
Los Altos, California 94023
Voice/FAX 415-949-4894

ABSTRACT

Now that we understand the importance and nature of cold fusion, it is time to nominate B. Stanley Pons, Martin Fleischmann (Fellow of the Royal Society), and Kenneth R. Shoulders for a Nobel Prize. Pons and Fleischmann deserve the prize for their fundamental discovery of cold fusion. Kenneth R. Shoulders deserves a part of the prize for his excellent work in discovering and revealing how nuclear reactions take place in both the palladium-heavy-water system and in the sono-fusion system. A further degree of experimental information about nuclear reactions has been added by the Neal-Gleeson Process. A summary of these fundamental discoveries illustrates how important these discoveries have been and will be in the rapid advancement of the treatment of radioactive wastes (especially radioactive slurries); the production of thermal energy without neutrons; and probably the development of factory-made scarce elements.

INTRODUCTION

B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann discussed the possible effects of loading deuterium into palladium; funded several years of experiments with their own funds; announced their discoveries to both the British and American energy authorities and to the University of Utah; moved their research to the University of Utah facilities; wrote, submitted, and received acceptance for a paper (Fleischmann & Pons, 1989); were constrained to discuss their discovery at a press conference; were condemned by some U.S. scientists; accepted Japanese funding; and have shown the unbelieving world that a new technology could produce large, anomalous amounts of energy that could not be produced by any known chemical reactions. Their work has been replicated by over 200 laboratories in thirty countries and reported in over 600 papers (Fox & Swartz, 1995).

Kenneth E. Shoulders discovered high-density charge clusters; developed many embodiments for the use of these charge clusters in high-speed logical devices; showed that the charge clusters could provide excess energy; and were the probable source of excess heat in a variety of cold fusion cells and devices (Shoulders, 1996).

A complete and updated bibliography of these and other new energy research papers and articles is available on disk (Fox, current). Selected articles and papers are catalogued in a subjects index on the Internet (Bailey, current). Several journals have recently been published that provide papers describing these phenomena (Fox, June 1996; Fox, Summer 1996; Fox, Sept. 1996). Also, several papers are available that summarize these journals and proceedings (Fox, Oct. 1996). The work of Kenneth Shoulders has been deemed so significant, that he has been nominated for both the Nobel Prize (Fox, Nov. 1996), and for "Scientist of the Year 1997" (Fox, Jan. 1997).

Without the discovery of cold-nuclear fusion by Pons and Fleischmann, Shoulders would not have discovered the role of charge clusters in producing excess thermal energy in cold fusion systems. Without the insight of Shoulders together with the discovery of the Neal-Gleeson Process (Bass, Neal, Gleeson, Fox, 1996), the broader new technology of the use of charge clusters to provide nuclear reactions is low-pressure gases, at atmospheric pressures, and even in aqueous solutions would not have been realized. The importance of these discoveries merits a tutorial on the power of ion-carrying charge clusters.

ION-CARRYING CHARGE CLUSTERS

Charge clusters can be created in a variety of environments ranging from near vacuum to some liquids. Kenneth Shoulders has taught in both his book (Shoulders, 1987) and his patents (Shoulders, 1991) how to make and recognize charge clusters. These charge clusters are created by most sparks, lightning, and (more professionally) by the techniques demonstrated by Shoulders in his several patents (Shoulders, 1991).

Recently, it has been determined that charge clusters can be created in liquids provided that the correct electrodes, molarity, voltage and current are properly chosen (Fox & Bailey, 1997). For some early work in which it is believed that charge clusters were being created in ethylene glycol with silicon, see the work by Waring and Benjamini (Waring & Benjamini, 1994). It is unlikely that Waring and Benjamini realized the nature of the "sparks" emitted from the silicon when the voltage was increased beyond the normal range for luminescence. It is also believed that the effective agent for promoting nuclear reactions in the Neal-Gleeson Process is due to the formation and use of charge clusters, although this observation was not known to the authors at the time the paper was written (Bass, Neal, Gleeson, Fox, 1996).

It is believed that the atmospheric spark-gap experiments of Reiter and Faile (Reiter & Faile, 1996) in creating and observing the "fire balls" is partially the result of the remarkable effects of charge clusters.

Fig. 1 illustrates a typical one micron charge cluster consisting of about 10¹¹ (100 billion) electrons. Due to the strong electrodynamic and/or electromagnetic effects, the cluster creates forces that are stronger than the mutual repulsion forces of the electrons. The end result is that the cluster is stable, at least while it is moving. As shown in the illustration, the negative cluster can attract and retain a relatively small number of positive ions (one ion for about every 100,000 electrons). In fact, the high degree of concentrated charge on a cluster will ionize gases and liquids under proper conditions. For example, if a charge cluster is created in a hydrogen atmosphere, some of the ionized hydrogen ions (we call protons) will be attracted to and carried by the charge cluster.

In Fig. 2, we depict the charge cluster in a strong electrostatic field with a downstream anode connected to positive 5,000-volt power supply. In this strong electric gradient, the charge cluster (and the attached ions) will accelerate to a velocity of about one-tenth the speed of light. If we were to build a proton accelerator, we would have to use an accelerating voltage of about nine million volts to impart the same velocity to a cluster of protons. Therefore, this simple device is essentially a high-energy accelerator of positive ions but based on a low-energy initial source!

We know that the proton is about 1836 times as heavy as the electron. If we calculate the impact kinetic energy [(1/2)mv²] that has been provided to each proton attached to the charge cluster, we find that the impact energy, according to standard nuclear physics, is sufficient to cause nuclear reactions. Therefore, this combination of a high-density cluster of electrons together with the accompanying positive ions is a dramatic new technology for producing low-energy nuclear reactions and the inventors deserve the Nobel Prize.

MAKING USE OF CHARGE CLUSTERS

As discovered and patented by Shoulders (Shoulders, 1987), charge clusters can be used to make or create more energy output than input to the device. As discovered and for which a patent is pending, Neal and Gleeson have found a method (Neal-Gleeson Process) by which radioactive elements can be stabilized (Bass, et.al, 1996). The method by which charge clusters can reduce radioactivity is conceptually easy to understand. If one looks at a chart of Nuclides and Isotopes, the high-mass elements are replete with radioactive isotopes. On the other hand, the lower-mass elements and their isotopes are more stable. The role of the charge cluster and its load of positive ions is to impact the radioactive heavy element; cause the elements to become unstable; promote spontaneous fission; and produce two (usually) smaller fragments which are usually stable. The process has been shown to significantly reduce radioactivity in radioactive solutions (Bass, et.al, 1996).

Now that we understand the process, at least one patent is pending on the use of an embodiment of the process by which low-energy (input) clusters can promote selected nuclear reactions which will produce high amounts of thermal energy. For example, let us assume that lead (Pb-208 to be precise) is the target element. We bombard the lead with a charge cluster; it becomes unstable and splits into two equal halves and provides us with two atoms of palladium (Pd-104). The process is a little more complicated because we have to deal with the mass of the impacting ion. However, to keep it simple, assume the that Pb-208 atom with a mass of 207.976627 is impacted, caused to fission and produces two Pd-104 atoms. The total mass produced is then two times 103.90403 or 207.80806. Note that the mass produced (207.80805) is less than the mass of the Pb-108 (207.976627). The difference in mass is not much but according to Einstein's formula E = mc², we can calculate the energy equivalent of the missing mass fraction. Of course, even a small amount of missing mass multiplied by the speed of light squared will be a significant amount of energy. Therefore, this reaction, - IF WE CAN CAUSE IT TO BE PRODUCED, - will provide thermal energy to our system.

MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR CHARGE CLUSTERS

A mathematical theory and model has been developed for the charge cluster (Jin & Fox, 1996). In this model the cluster is shown to provide extremely high local electrodynamic and electromagnetic fields. In addition, the model shows that the cluster cannot be spherical but is most likely to be toroidal in nature. Furthermore, certain parameters are shown to have a derived mathematical relationship for the charge cluster to be stable. The theory is of fundamental importance to aid in moving this mainly experimental technology to a scientific discipline. Of course, the obvious next accomplishment must be the independent replication of this phenomena by independent scientist(s).

The mathematical model has been carefully studied by nuclear physicists who have not found any basic flows. Comments received have declared this new technology to be a breakthrough in physics.

MAKING SCARCE ELEMENTS

In a preceding section, we discussed the possibility of using Pb as a target material, impacting the lead with charge clusters and transmuting the lead into palladium to get excess thermal energy. If we could accomplish that feat, then we would have the thermal energy - PLUS A MORE VALUABLE ELEMENT PRODUCED THAN WE STARTED WITH! Nature may not be so kind. The idea that a particular nuclear reaction is possible does not mean that the same reaction is probable. Nature will inform us, as we ask the correct questions, what we can and cannot accomplish. However, it is believed that there are many scarce elements in the periodic table which we will be able to make from more plentiful elements. It is the judgement of the authors that an element in nature is scarce because the probability of making such an element is low -- meaning that the production of such element must require energy. However, it appears that creating energy with nuclear reactions will not be an insoluble problem. It is also to be expected that we will be able to find the combination of ions and target elements that can be used together with the correct level of input energy to create the scarce element of our choice (Fox, Bass, & Jin, 1996).

Experiments have shown that with the proper use of high-density charge clusters heavy elements have been fissioned into lighter elements. In addition, and less expected, lighter elements have been shown to fuse into heavier elements. For example, if one is propelling many protons into the nuclei of water constituents, it is likely that some of the nuclear events will include the bombardment of oxygen atoms with protons, even with multiple protons. Perhaps local energies may be high enough to cause more complex fusion events. Preliminary experiments have shown that both fission and fusion events can be produced by these high-density charge clusters.

It is expected that the further study of this new Charge Cluster Technology will discover a whole different concept of nuclear-reaction cross section. There is no reason to believe that nuclear reactions within metal lattice targets nor within liquid targets must follow the precise discoveries of nuclear reactions in plasma physics.

SUMMARY

The enormous importance of the discoveries of Pons, Fleischmann, and Shoulders is the opening of a new window on the universe. These scientists should receive a Nobel Prize! A new line of research and development in physics has now been provided by the initial discoveries and uses of high-density charge clusters. At least two, and probably several new patent applications have resulted from this new line of research and development.

In summary, we now know how we can do the following:

1. Clean up radioactive wastes.

2. Create clean, abundant, thermal energy -- WITH NO NEUTRONS.

3. Create factory-produced scarce elements.