NASA Report: “Experimental Observations of Nuclear Activity in Deuterated Materials Subjected to a Low-Energy Photon Beam”

Thanks to the readers who commented about a NASA paper that has been posted on the LENR Forum here titled “Experimental Observations of Nuclear Activity in Deuterated Materials Subjected to a Low-Energy Photon Beam”.

The paper has also been published on Arxiv.org here. Here is the abstract:

Exposure of highly deuterated materials to a low-energy (nom. 2 MeV) photon beam resulted in nuclear activity of both the parent metals of hafnium and erbium and a witness material (molybdenum) mixed with the reactants. Gamma spectral analysis of all deuterated materials, ErD2.8-C36D74-Mo and HfD2-C36D74-Mo, showed that nuclear processes had occurred as shown by unique gamma signatures. For the deuterated erbium specimens, posttest gamma spectra showed evidence of radioisotopes of erbium (163Er and 171Er) and of molybdenum (99Mo and 101Mo) and by beta decay, technetium (99mTc and 101Tc). For the deuterated hafnium specimens, posttest gamma spectra showed evidence of radioisotopes of hafnium (180mHf and 181Hf) and molybdenum (99Mo and 101Mo), and by beta decay, technetium (99mTc and 101Tc). In contrast, when either the hydrogenated or non-gas-loaded erbium or hafnium materials were exposed to the gamma flux, the gamma spectra revealed no new isotopes. Neutron activation materials showed evidence of thermal and epithermal neutrons. CR-39 solid-state nuclear track detectors showed evidence of fast neutrons with energies between 1.4 and 2.5 MeV and several instances of triple tracks, indicating greater than 10 MeV neutrons. Further study is required to determine the mechanism causing the nuclear activity.

There are multiple authors listed, some of whom are from NASA agencies, others from private industry and other universities and organziations. What they report does not seem dissimilar to some other reports we have seen over the years — Gerard McEk mentioned that Holmlid is getting similar results using lasers instead of photon beams.