BARC-1500 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION BARC STUDIES IN COLD FUSION (April - September 1989) Edited by P.K. lyengar and M. Srinfvasan December 1989 BHABHA ATOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE TROMBAY, BOMBAY BARC STUDIES IN COLD FUSION Edited fly PK. lyengar and M. snnlvasan Typical Autoradiograph of a Deuterat^d Ti Disc Showing Regions of Tritium Concentration Published by Library & Information Services Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Bombay-400 085. BARC-1500 G0V1I31NMENT OF INDIA ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION BARC STUDIES IN COLD FUSION (April - September 1989) Edited by P.K. Iyengar and M. Srinivasan December 1989 BHABHA ATOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE TROMBAY, BOMBAY, B.A.R.C.-150(1 BIBLIOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION SHEET FOR TECHNICAL REPORT ( as per IS : 9400 - 1980 ) 01 Security classification: Unclassified 02 Distribution : External 03 Report status: New 04 Series : B.A.R.C. External 05 Report type : Technical Report 06 Report No. : B.A.R.C.-1500 07 Part No. or Volume No. : 08 Contract No. : 10 Title and subtitle : BARC Studies in cold fusion (April-September 1989) 11 Collation : 150 p. 13 Project No. : 20 Personal author(s) : P.K. lyengar; M. Srinivasan (eds.) 21 Affiliation of author(s) : Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay 22 Corporate author(s) : Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay 23 Originating unit: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay 24 Sponsor(s) Name : Department of Atomic Energy Type : Government Corttd. ...(II) 30 Date of submission : December 1989 31 Publication/Issue date December 1989 40 Publisher/Distributor: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay 42 Form of distribution : Hard copy 50 Language of text: English 51 Language of summary English 52 No. of references : 53 Gives data on : 60 Abstract : -rnjs repOrt is a compilation of the work carried out at BARC, Trombay during the first six months of the "cold fusion era" namely April to September 1989. This report comprises of three parts. Part A covers cold fusion investigations based on the electrolytic approach. Part B summarises the work based on D2 loading in the gas phase and Part C covers the theore- tical papers. 70 Keywords/Descripiom : COLD FUSION; HEAVY WATER; ELECTROLYSIS; TRITIUM; NEUTRON EMISSION; TITANIUM; PALLADIUM; DEUTERON REACTIONS; HELIUM 71 Class No. : INIS Subject Category : A 3410; B1210 99 Supplementary elements : CONTENTS Preface Summary PART A: ELECTROLYTIC CELL EXPERIMENTS A 1 Cold Fusion Experiments Using a Commercial Pd—Ni Electrolyser M.S. Krishnan, S.K. Malhotra, D.G. Gaonkar, M. Srinivasan, S.K. Sikka, A. Shyam, V. Chitra, T.S. Iyengar and P.K. Iyengar A 2 Preliminary Results of Cold Fusion Studies Using a Five Module High Current Electrolytic Cell M.G. Nayar, S.K. Mitra, P. Raghunathan, M.S. Krishnan, S.K. Malhotra, D.G. Gaonkar, S.K. Sikka, A. Shyam and V. Chitra A3 Observation of Cold Fusion in a Ti—SS Electrolytic Cell M.S. Krishnan, S.K. Malhotra, D.G. Gaonkar, M.G. Nayar, A. Shyam and S.K. Sikka A 4 Multiplicity Distribution of Neutron Emission in Cold Fusion Experiments A. Shyam, M. Srinivasan, S.B. Degwekar and L.V. Kulkarni A 5 Search for Electrochemically Catalysed Fusion of Deuterons in Metal Lattice T.P. Radhakrishnan, R. Sundaresan, J. Arunachalam, V. Sitarama Raju, R. Kalyanaraman, S Gangadharan and P.K. Iyengar A 6 Tritium Generation during Electrolysis Experiment T.P. Radhakrishnan, R. Sundaresan, S. Gangadharan, B.K. Sen, T.S. Murthy A 7 Burst Neutron Emission and Tritium Generation from Palladium Cathode Electrolytically Loaded with Deuterium G.Venkateswaran, P.N. Moorthy, K.S. Venkateswarlu, S.N. Guha, B. Yuvaraju, T. Datta, T.S. Iyengar, M.S. Panajkar, K.A. Rao and Kamal i<ishore A 8 Verification Studies in Electrochemically Induced Fusion of Deuterons in Palladium Cathodes H. Bose, L.H. Prabhu, S. Sankarnarayanan, R.S. Shetiya, N. Veeraraghavan, P.V. Joshi, T.S. Murthy, B.K. Sen and K.G.B. Sharma A 9 Tritium Analysis of Samples Obtained from Various Electrolysis Experiments at BARC T.S Murthy, T.S. Iyengar, B.K.Sen and T.B. Joseph A 10 Material Balance of Tritium in the Electrolysis of Heavy Water M.S. Krishnan, S.K. Malhotra and S.K. Sadhukhan All Technique for Concentration of Helium in Electrolytic Gases for Cold Fusion Studies K.Annaji Rao CONTENTS (Contd.) PARTB: D2 GAS LOADING EXPERIMENTS B i Search for Nuclear Fusion in Gas Phase Deuteriding of Titanium Metal P.Raj, P. Suryanarayana, A. Sathyamoorthy and T. Datta B 2 Deuteration of Machined Titanium Targets for Cold Fusion Experiments V.K. Shrikande and K.C. Mittal B 3 Autoradiography of Deuterated Ti and Pd Targets for Spatially Resolved Detection of Tritium Produced by Cold Fusion R.K. Rout, M. Srinivasan and A. Shyam B 4 Evidence for Production of Tritium via Cold Fusion Reactions in Deuterium Gas Loaded Palladium M.S. Krishnan, S.K. Malhotra, D.G. Gaonkar, V.D. Nagvenkarand H.K. Sadhukhan PARTC: THEORETICAL PAPERS C 1 Materials Issues in the So-Called 'Cold Fusion' Experiments R.Chidambaram and V.C. Sahni C 2 Remarks on Cold Fusion B.A. Dasannacharya and K.R. Rao C.3 The Role of Combined Electron—Deuteron Screening in D—D Fusion in Metals S.N. Vaidya and Y.S. Mayya C 4 A Theory of Cold Nuclear Fusion in Deuterium Loaded Palladium Swapan K. Ghosh, H.K. Sadhukhan and Ashish K. Dhara C.5 Fracture Phenomena in Crystalline Solids: A Brief Review in the Context of Cold Fusion T.C. Kaushik, M. Srinivasan and A. Shyam Acknowledgement PREFACE Energy production in the Universe is mostly based on nuclear reactions especially fusion reactions of light element nuclei. Energy production in the Sun on the basis of fusion of hydrogen, it? isotopes and elements upto carbon have been well theorized by now. It is natural to expect that there will be a large variety of nuclear reactions which will lead to the production of nuclear energy. In fact there is a whole gamut of fusion reactions in astrophysics which suggest various combinations of nuclear interactions and modes of decay for energy production. The collapse of binary stars and the transformation of neutron stars into black holes are the ultimate phases of stellar evolution and production of fusion energy therefrom. Even before the discovery of the neutron, scientists had predicted and even tried to prove that nuclear energy could be generated through fusion of hydrogen nuclei (protons). It was however only after detailed accelerator based research in nuclear physics, that the cross sections and Q values for these reactions became available. This enabled many conjectures to be made. Some of the candidate reactions considered for the generation of fusion energy are: (p+p), (p+d), (d+d), (d-ft) etc. The familiarity of scientists with accelerator based nuclear reactions, however led them to believe that fusion reactions can take place only on the basis of overcoming the potential barrier caused by the electrostatic interaction. This demands that the particles have considerable relative velocity and from the analogy of what is happening in the Sun, thermonuclear fusion was considered as the most appropriate technique for releasing fusion energy on a large scale. We are all aware of the many experimental attempts that have been made over the last four decades to obtain conditions appropriate for thermonuclear fusion. The principle of confinement of these hot plasmas by means of complex magnetic fields in special configurations was invented in the early fifties. Of these the Tokamak has been a major success and has almost reached the stage of breakeven in energy production. However, the large size and the expensive equipment needed to attain even this breakeven stage have raised doubts about its commercial viability. The technique of generating temperatures of 100 million degrees using the principle of inertial confinement was first demonstrated in a thermonuclear bomb. The same principle has been borrowed and adapted in making fusion reactions possible in small pellets using lasers, electron beams and heavy ion beams. However even this approach of releasing nuclear energy through a series of fusion micro—explosions has not lived upto its early expectations as the power and energy of the driver beams for obtaining the requisite pellet energy gain became uncomfortably high. Small and more elegant methods are therefore being attempted. Techniques such as Z—pinches, combined magnetic and inertial confinement schemes etc are under experimentation. As an interim measure it has meanwhile been suggested that fusion devices may be employed as a source of neutrons for producing fissile fuel for use in fission reactors Thus in quest of establishing the best method of producing fusion energy there has been considerable innovations and cross fertilization of new ideas during the last couple of decades. However new ideas are always welcome and must be tried out. Cold fusion which we are discussing here is one such innovation which on the face of it looks so simple that it seems too good to be true. It has generated considerable sppr-ulatiori on the processes which cause fusion in the solid state at. room temperatures. The basic problem is essentially to bring together ions of hydrogen isotopes at distances of a few Fermts so that fusion takes place. It is worth recalling here previous attempts to bring together hydrogen nuclei to distances at which the spontaneous fusioning rate would increase considerably. The most effective method has been the replacement of the orbital electron of a molecular hydrogen ion by a n meson or muon as it is called. Because of its heavier mass, the muon is ahlp to squeeze the nuclei into a more compact molecule and cause n fusion reaction. Besides, Hit muon is found itf have an additional advantage, because of its longer life time { 1 /*s), frped after a fusion reaction, it is able to catalyze I more fusions.