Peter Gluck on the Differences Between LENR and LENR+

Romanian technologist, chemical engineer and publisher of the Ego Out website, Peter Gluck, is a long-time supporter of cold fusion/LENR, and more recently of what he often refers to as LENR+ — the new generation of high-energy output LENR which has been pioneered by Andrea Rossi.

Gluck has recently published a post on his site in which he responds to, and comments on Edmund Storms’ recent book, The Explanation of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction. He praises Storms’ facts and style in the book, while at the same time criticizing his theoretical position. Here is a key excerpt from the post:

“Ed’s theory does not show the difference between classic LENR and enhanced excess heat as obtained by Rossi and DGT. It is about going from tens of Watts to kWatts, can this be hundred times more good cracks or is it something more fundamental and more smart?

“My answer was, from the start that it is the mechanism of genesis of active sites (Ed calls them NAE [Nuclear Active Environments], but I disagree — see here. Classic LENR works mainly with pre-formed active sites, limited in number/density while LENR+ is based on a continuous generation of new active sites — it is a dynamic equilibrium between the active sites that are destroyed by the high temperature and the new ones that appear; the trick is to have many of these doing their task — a sequence of processes and reactions. The constructive side of the high temperature must be added to its destructive effect and this is the clue of the LENR+’s exceptionality and progress. This is something more sophisticated than crack management.

“The critical Debye temperature is one at which the dynamics of the atoms at the surface of the metal, changes and the generation of active sites can begin. In my opinion the active sites are at the very surface of a specific metal or alloy. I have predicted this decisive role of surface dynamics long ago; see please my Surfdyn paper.

“I hope that the coming LENR+ crucial events will reveal a lot, including the role of the dynamic equilibrium of the active sites- with details that can help us to go from principles to practice and, simultaneously to theories.”

I think Gluck’s point about the vast difference between LENR and LENR+ is well taken. In classic LENR there has always been a struggle to first to achieve any effect at all, and when it does occur to control it or ramp it up power levels that are usable. What Andrea Rossi has done is to somehow find a way to consistently achieve a reaction at much higher power levels — and there has to be some major underlying difference in the mechanisms at work.

The idea of a ‘dynamic equilibrium’ where NEA sites are simultaneously created and destroyed is an interesting one — and it will be interesting to see if anything that is eventually revealed by Rossi matches Gluck’s hypothesis here.