Cold Fusion Research Starts at the University of Missouri

Cold fusion research funded by billionaire Sidney Kimmel has started at the University of Missouri at Columbia. The Kansas City Star newspaper reported that Mark Prelas a professor at the University’s Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute has revived a low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) experiment he was involved with back in 1991.

Prelas is receiving funds from the Sidney Kimmel Institute for Nuclear Renaissance or SKINR. This institute was organized last year with $5.5 million donated by Kimmel the head of the Jones Group a clothing company. The head of the institute is apparently Robert Duncan the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University. Duncan has been an outspoken proponent of LENR but there is no evidence he is involved with Prelas’s research although he is aware of it.

Interestingly enough Prelas is not a newcomer to the field of cold fusion research. The Columbia Daily Tribune newspaper reported that he conducted a similar experiment back in 1991 but that experiment ended when a supervisor cut off his research. Prelas’s experiment involved raising a deuterium saturated metal to a high temperature. This was supposed to create a neutron burst by changing hydride to deuterium gas. It also creates a lot of pressure.

Mark Prelas Courtesy Columbia Daily Tribune

Prelas told the Tribune that his experiment created one million neutrons a second back in 1991 before it was cancelled. He noted that back in 1991 his research account was frozen after his bosses discovered that he was working on cold fusion so he couldn’t buy supplies for more work.

Prelas has recreated the experiment with funding from SKINR and he has modern equipment that provides for a better counting system. Prelas told the Tribune that he has been able to recreate the 1991 results. Prelas is also testing the use of titanium in LENR processes.

Duncan who is apparently aware of the results told the Tribune that he is excited about the work. Duncan said success could lead to engineering better systems. Duncan also said that one of the main focuses at SKINR is to discover new physics to explain the phenomenon.

This is very exciting news because it indicates that LENR research is going on at another major American university. Prelas’s story also shows us the importance of money in cold fusion research. The establishment was able to shut him down in 1991 because they controlled the check book. Now that somebody with an open mind has control of the cash, Prelas is free to conduct his experiments.

More wealthy people need to follow Sidney Kimmel’s lead and start donating to LENR research. There are probably many scientists out there who are chomping at the bit to begin LENR work but they lack the funds. If wealthy people start writing checks for the research the powers that be at the universities will start opening their minds and allowing the research. More universities need to follow the University of Missouri’s lead and get on the LENR bandwagon they will if the money appears.

University of Missouri campus at Columbia the Tiger is the school's mascot

Average people can also help here by donating money and organizing fund raising drives for this research. If we can get major LENR research efforts going at several universities we might be able to turn it into a working energy source that much sooner.

Continue reading here: Who is working on Cold Fusion?

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