Overview of Barc Studies in Cold Fusion

A wide variety of experiments have been carried out by twelve independent teams employing both electrolytic and gas phase loading of deuterium in Pd and Ti metals to investigate the phenomenon of cold fusion first reported by Fleischmann and Pons in March 1989. The experiments were primarily devoted to the study of the emission of nuclear particles such as neutrons and tritium with a view to verify the “nuclear origin” of cold fusion. In 22 different electrolytic experiments whose cathode surface areas ranged from 0.1 to 300 cm, large bursts of neutrons and/or tritium were measured. Some of these gave clear evidence that these two nuclear particles were being generated simultaneously. The neutron-to-tritium yield ratios in the majority of these experiments was in the range of 10 to 10. The specific neutron and tritium yields expressed per cm of cathode surface area also fitted into a systematic pattern. A unique feature of the BARC electrolysis results is that the first bursts of neutrons and tritium occurred (in 8 out of 11 cells) on the very first day of commencement of electrolysis, when hardly a few amp-hrs of charge had been passed. In gas phase studies copious neutron emission was observed in a Frascati type absorption/desorption mode experiment with Ti shavings. Presence of tritium in D2 gas loaded Pd and Ti samples was established through the technique of autoradiography as well as Ti K X-ray counting. In the case of Ti, it was noted that RF heating of samples, in lieu of resistance furnace heating somehow promotes tritium formation. Most recently it was found that≈ 1016 atoms of tritium had been “produced” on the top end surface of the central Ti electrode of a deuterium filled Plasma Focus device after it was subjected to≈ 80 charge/discharges shots. Al in all the BARC studies have unambiguously confirmed the anomalous production of neutrons and tritium in deuterium loaded Pd and Ti lattices.