NAVY ACKNOWLEGES ANOMALIES
M.H. Miles, Benjamin F. Bush, Kendall B. Johnson
(R&T Div., Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Div., China Lake, CA)
"Anomalous Effects in Deuterated Systems"
NAWCWPNS TP 8302, September 1996, 99 pages, 36 refs, 35 figs.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our results provide compelling evidence that the anomalous effects in deuterated systems are real. Nevertheless, we have not been able to solve the reproducibility problem. This research area will remain highly controversial until reproducibility can be demonstrated. The lack of reproducibility stems mainly from unknown and uncontrolled variables in the palladium stock. There is a remarkable correlation of excess power with the source of the palladium. The best reproducibility was obtained using palladium-boron (Pd-B) materials supplied by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Washington, DC. Seven out of eight experiments that used Pd-B cathodes produced excess power. In experiments that used the palladium from Johnson-Matthey, 18 of 28 experiments produced excess heat. In contrast there were several palladium sources that never produced excess power in any experiment. Our calorimetric results, conclusions, and problems are practically identical to those reported by SRI International Energy Research Center, Menlo Park, California. They are also consistent with many other laboratories that have reported excess heat. Calorimeters that are capable of detecting excess power levels of 1 watt per cubic centimeter (W/cm3) of palladium are essential for research in this field. The small volume of palladium in co-deposition experiments likely made it difficult to detect excess power effects.
Results from our laboratory indicate that helium-4 (4He is used interchangeably with helium-4) is the missing nuclear product. Thirty experiments have shown a correlation between either excess power and helium production or no excess power and no excess helium. Studies using both glass and metal flasks place the 4He production rate at 1011 to 1012 atoms per second per watt (atoms/s¥W) of excess power. This is the correct magnitude for typical deuteron fusion reactions that yield helium as a product. It is highly unlikely that our heat and helium correlations could be due to random errors. The only valid experiments that showed significant excess power but no excess helium involved a palladium-cerium (Pd-Ce) cathode.
Our best experiments produced up to 30% excess heat, 0.52 watts of excess power, and 1400 kilojoules (kJ) of excess enthalpy. This amount of excess enthalpy is difficult to explain by any chemical reaction. We have demonstrated that any recombination of the deuterium (D2) and oxygen (O2) electrolysis gases in our experiments can be readily detected and easily corrected. There was never any measurable recombination when the palladium cathodes were fully submerged in the deuterium oxide plus deuterated lithium hydroxide (D2O + LiOD) electrolyte.
Anomalous radiation was detected in some experiments by the use of X-ray films, several different types of Geiger-Mueller (GM) counters, and sodium iodide (NaI) detectors. Normal radiation counts were always observed when no electrolysis experiments were running. The appearance of anomalous radiation always correlated with the expected rate of loading of the palladium with deuterium. Nevertheless, the anomalous radiation effect was not reproducible.
www.padrak.com/ine/NEN_4_7_2.html
Nov. 19, 1996.