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122) New cold fusion data from Russia

Ludwik Kowalski (12/29/03)
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, NJ, 07043



Last summer Karabut wrote to me that visa difficulties prevented him from participation in the 10th cold fusion conference. But his three papers were submitted and I downloaded them from the http://www.lenr-canr.org web site. I will refer (1) to these papers as KK1 (Karabut and Kolomeychenko), K2 (Karabut) and K3 (Karabut). The papers report experimental results obtained by using the glow discharge chamber already described in my Unit #13. But conditions of the discharge, and auxiliary equipment, were different in each experiment.

The KK3 paper focuses on emission of soft X-rays (1.3 to 1.8 keV) emitted from various cathodes (from Al to Pb) of the glow discharge tube (deuterium and hydrogen gas at the pressure of 10 torrs). Two kinds of X-rays were identified: coherent (laser-like) and not coherent (diffused). The authors observe that “the emission of the X-ray laser beams occurred” both during the discharge (current pulses of 100 mA) and after the current was off. They add that “the obtained results were the direct experimental proof of existing excited metastable energy levels with energy of 1.2 - 5.0 keV in the solid state cathode samples.” The authors report that in some cases the intensity of emission was as high as 0.01 Gy/s (1 rad/s).

The K2 paper reports on X-rays generated in experiments in which the current pulses were as high as 500 mA. Four different gasses (H2, D2, Kr and Xe) were used as well as cathodes made from various materials (from Al to W and Pt). Some ionizing radiation, according to Karabut, was able to penetrate the walls of the chamber (5 mm of steel). He refers to it as “secondary radiation.” The abstract of the paper ends with the following sentence: “It was shown that the secondary radiation consisted of fast electrons.” How are these findings related to cold fusion? I do not know how to answer this question. Is it possible that laser-like X-rays are emitted in all cold fusion experiments but nobody noticed them before? I remember Alexander telling me about laser-like X-rays in Albuquerque (in October of 2002). But I was not ready to ask questions and was very skeptical.

The K3 paper also refers to emission of X-rays but the main emphasis is generation of excess heat and detection of transmutation products. The abstract of that paper ends with the following sentence: “The possible mechanism of producing the excess heat power and products of nuclear transmutation reactions in the solid medium with excited energy levels was considered.” The most significant aspect of K3 paper, as far as I am concerned, is confirmation of experimental findings that were reported in the previous cold fusion conference (see item 13 on my web site). In one case the excess power was 8 W while the input power was 14 W. In most cases, however, the excess power was about 3 W while the input power was about 9 W. These results were obtained by using the flow calorimeter. In reading K3, Kirk Shanahan (see item #115 and #118), would probably say that not enough information was provided to validate the claimed excess heat.

The section devoted to products of transmutation reactions (where the term “impurities” is used by Karabut instead of the term “trace elements”) seems to be a repetiton of what has been reported by him (see item #13 on my web site). Karabut lists 20 nuclides (from 7Li to 115In) which are produced at the rate of up to 1013 atoms per second.

Titles of three articles:

KK1- A.B. Karabut and S.A. Kolomeychenko: “Experimental Research into Characteristics of X-ray Emission from Solid-state Cathode Medium of High-current Glow Discharge.”

K2 -- A.B. Karabut, “Experimental Research Into Secondary Penetrating Radiation When Interacting X-ray Beams of Solid Laser with Various Materials Targets.”Emission from Solid-state Cathode Medium Of High-current Glow Discharge.”

K3 -- A.B. Karabut, “ Production Of excess Heat, Impurity Elements And Unnatural Isotopic ratios Formed At Excited Long-Lived Atomic Levels With Energy Of More Than 1 keV In A Solid Cathode Medium During High Current Glow Discharge.”

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