Cold fusion (LENR) and near room temperature superconductivity — a USA government report

According to the report “INVESTIGATION OF NANO-NUCLEAR REACTIONS IN CONDENSED MATTER“, from the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency,

By using the Pd/D co-deposition technique and co-depositional variants (based on flux control), solid evidence (i.e., excess heat generation, hot spots, mini-explosions, ionizing radiation, near-IR emission, tritium production, transmutation, and neutrons) has been obtained that indicate that lattice assisted nuclear reactions can and do occur within the Pd lattice. The results to date indicate that some of the reactions occur very near the surface of the electrode (within a few atomic layers). Also, the reactions may be enhanced in the presence of either an external electric or magnetic field, or by optically irradiating the cathode of cells driven at their optimal operating point (OOP). Optimal operating points appear when heat, power gain, or helium or tritium production, are presented as a function of the input electrical power. They allow standardization, and driving with electrical input power beyond the OOP yields a falloff of the production rates.

Besides LENR, the Pd/H(D) system exhibits superconductivity. Palladium itself does not superconduct. However, it was found that H(D)/Pd does and that the critical temperatures of the deuteride are about 2.5 K higher than those of hydride (at the same atomic ratios). This is the ‘inverse’ isotope effect. In these early measurements, the loading of H(D) in the Pd lattice was less than unity, i.e. H(D):Pd < 1. Later Tripodi et al.  developed a method of loading and stabilizing 50 µm diameter Pd wires with H(D):Pd loadings greater than one. These samples have exhibited near room temperature superconductivity. Examples of measured superconducting transitions of PdHx samples are shown in Figure 1-2.

We believe the two phenomena, LENR and high Tc superconductivity, are related and that both need to be investigated in order to gain an understanding of the processes occurring inside the Pd lattice. The scope of this effort was to design and conduct experiments to elucidate the underlying physics of nuclear reactions occurring inside Pd-D nano-alloys and to make that data available to theoreticians to aid in their ability to develop a theory that explains how and why low energy nuclear reactions can occur within a palladium lattice.

Tip of the hat to Frank Acland.