One of the top cold fusion researchers, Dr. Michael McKubre of SRI or the Stanford Research Institute; said he has tested between 12 and 15 low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) technologies for the United States government. If that wasn’t enough, McKubre said his team was able to replicate at least five of those technologies.

Michael McKubre with David Firshein of Brillouin and fellow researcher Francis L. Tanzella in his lab at SRI courtesy Sterling D. Allen

McKubre made these revelations to Sterling D. Allen of Pure Energy systems in a recent interview at his lab. The purpose of the interview was to discuss Brillouin’s boiler technology but McKubre also mentioned some of his other work. McKubre also said his team was able to modify some of the other experiments and make them work.

SRI lets inventors come in and set up their LENR devices, McKubre said. The institute then tests the devices and its people try to replicate them. If they can replicate the device and the effect without the inventor present, LENR is proven.

McKubre said the LENR testing was being conducted for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencies or DARPA which develops new technologies for the United States military.

“Actually DARPA sponsored those,” McKubre said. He said his team had investigated interesting claims for the agency.

“Had them do their experiment their way,” McKubre said.

When asked about LENR in general McKubre said he believes that Andrea Rossi, Defkalion, Brillouin and Black Light Systems have all succeeded in creating cold fusion. He also believes that none of them has succeeded in creating a commercially viable technology. McKubre thinks that Robert Godes of Brillouin whom he is working with is closest to developing a working LENR device.

McKubre said at least two different versions of Brillouin’s device one that heats water to create steam to generate electricity and one that uses pressurized hydrogen gas are being tested at SRI. He said one set of experiments is being done now and other will start at some point in the future.

Brillouin is able to turn its LENR device on and off and to raise and lower the temperature out from its device, McKubre said. He took credit for this advance noting that he had told Godes how to redesign the shape of the electrical impulse to achieve it.

“A very nice engineering job,” McKubre said of the Brillouin device. “It’s nice to be involved in the ground floor.”

SRI International

McKubre also admitted that he was deeply impressed by Brillouin’s professionalism. He also admitted that the gas system does not have the level of control that the hot water system has.

When asked what would make an LENR device a viable technology McKubre said it would have generate enough heat to be six times over unity. That means it would generate heat to make it economical to operate on electricity. He didn’t mention what the rate for Brillouin’s device was but McKubre said he has seen devices that generate heat at rates of 25 to 30 times unity.

“There’s not much point selling an effect that takes expensive electricity and turns it into low grade heat,” McKubre said of LENR. He admits that none of the LENR technologies he has seen can be considered commercially viable by his standards.

“Everything that I know suggests that this is a nuclear process,” McKubre said of LENR.

McKubre also said that the LENR effect is nuclear and that cold fusion is an accurate term for describing it. He also admitted that scientists really don’t understand LENR that well yet.

One admission McKubre did make is that scientists lack a good understanding of the theoretical basis of LENR. Without such an understanding it could be difficult to ascertain how safe LENR would be.

LENR will be much safer than conventional nuclear power because it will not generate long-lived radioactive waste, McKubre who has worked conventional nuclear reactors in the past said. He said there will be dangerous waste from LENR in the form of tritium but it’ll be in smaller amounts and it will not be long lived.

When asked why physicists hate the term cold fusion, McKubre had an interesting answer.

Fusion is a sacred word in the nuclear world,” he said. McKubre noted that most physicists only acknowledge one kind of fusion: hot fusion when in reality there are many different kinds of fusion. McKubre believes that cold fusion could be transmutation but it is a nuclear effect.

When asked about the future, McKubre said there will be no cold fusion monopoly. Instead several different companies will be marketing different LENR processes, unlike some researchers he thinks there is room for e-cat, Brillouin, Defakalion and other companies. McKubre said he wants to the companies to work together to bring LENR to market.

McKubre’s revelations indicate that LENR is for real and the US government is working on it. One just hopes other researchers will follow his example and come out of the LENR closet.