A patent was granted by the United States Patent Office on April 16, 2013 for a ‘System and Method for Generating Particles.’ The the inventors are listed as Pamela Mosier-Boss, Frank Gordon, Stan Szpak and Larry Forsley, and the Assignees are JWK International Corporation (Annandale, VA) and The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy (Washington, DC).
The patent was applied for in 2007 when Frank Gordon was head of the US Navy’s Research and Applied Science Department at SPAWAR Systems Center, and presumably the other inventors were working there at the time.
The patent does not mention anything about cold fusion, low energy nuclear reactions, or even anomalous heat effects. I find the text of the patent to be very dense and technical and not easy for a non-expert for myself to follow. It does mention that some of the materials used in the method can be palladium, nickel, gold, silver and platinum.
As far as the application and significance of this invention, the patent states:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The embodiments of the invention relate generally to the field of electrochemistry.
Generated particles may be captured by other nuclei to create new elements, to remediate nuclear waste, to treat cancerous tumors, or to create strategic materials. Previous efforts to create a reproducible method and corresponding system to generate particles during electrolysis of palladium in heavy water have been unsuccessful.
Therefore, a need currently exists for a reproducible method and corresponding system that can generate particles. (Emphasis added)
The application does not shy away then from the fact that this system and method may be used in transmutation, and the examiners apparently were not troubled by this.