The Ultimate Energy Source

Pulse Power Devices and Stumbling on the Proton21 Results

Interestingly, this concept of highly intense pulsed power is not a new concept. There are established  researchers in the USA working on high current, high voltage, short pulse devices. There are two such projects in the US presently. One is called the “Atlas Pulsed Power” device.

 

www.nv.doe.gov/nationalsecurity/stewardship/atlas.htm

 

My research about the Atlas device indicates that it creates compressive forces which can be used to simulate those in a “nuclear fusion weapon”. A study of the Atlas project shows the parallelism between the Atlas device and the Proton21 work in respect the pulsed power application.

 

There is a similar project, called the “Z machine”, which uses a “pulsed power” to collapse a set of wires on themselves.  This effort is called the Z machine. Its titular use is also for weapons/fusion research.

 

http://zpinch.sandia.gov/

 

Both the Atlas and the Z machine achieve incredible internal pressures. In essence there is NO difference between these devices, and the concept of using what is known as the Lorenz force which brings the target matter to a focus. The primary technical difference between Proton 21’s work and the work at the Atlas and Z machines is that the research groups running the latter devices never check for neither isotope transformations nor transmutation of elements involved in the compression reactions.  I have this by personal communication with the project director of the Z machine, in March of 2007. It is also interesting to note that after a “material change out” in the Z machine, a jump of the “observed temperature” of the pulse, by a factor of almost a thousand was observed. It

Is my contention that they “accidentally” obtained the same “self consistent” collapse of Proton21, but as noted above, in regard to materials analysis, they have done nothing to allow them to “see the evidence” of the result of this self consistent collapse.

Here is a detail on that "Jump" in pulse temperature caused by a simple material changeout:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/03/060308212104.htm

(Website with announcement of 2 billion degree result, “Hotter than the Stars”…)

I also infer this from the public information available on the Atlas website as to the goals of the Atlas project, which are purely centered around generating large compressive impulse forces, that such effects as transmutations or isotope changes have not been sought or observed. Both projects are regarded as “physics” experiments, and no “chemistry” is investigated. Had they performed chemical analysis they probably would have discovered evidence of transmutation of elements and isotope shift. . Because nuclear transmutations are not expected, by theory, they have had nothing driving them  to check for nuclear reaction evidence.

In contrast the Proton 21 group had a hypothesis that with the discharge geometry they used, the tip of their copper electrodes, would achieve a  transitory collapse of the Copper atoms  by a volume factor of  thousands to  1. They suspected that such a collapse would result in massive numbers of “nuclear transmutations” and perhaps even the creation of “super heavy nuclei”.

Thus the goal of Proton21 was not to achieve “arcs and sparks” as mentioned on the Z machine web page. (And as a by product, simulation of the hydrogen bomb operation on a controlled, small scale.), but rather Proton21 had a practical goal of checking for evidence of nuclear transmutation and other “by-products” induced by the “matter collapse”. They did do such observations and found they had achieved observable transmutations of elements and isotope shifts.

Recommended for understanding the concept of an isotope:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope 

To prove this, they conducted detailed examination of the “residuals” spread about a copper mesh mounting “tray” used for holding on of the two electrodes used in the tests. They found every element of the periodic table (except such the gasses produced such as chlorine, bromine, etc. as this work is performed in a vacuum chamber and such gasses would be evacuated on formation) on the sample trays using a method called “X ray Fluorescence”.  By 2004 this had been done over 5000 times with their first generation test device.

More importantly, they also found evidence of the creation of significant amounts of “Super Heavy Nuclei”, using a method called “Mass Spectroscopy”.

When we talk of “super heavy nuclei” in significant amounts we are speaking of evidence of 10^19 (That is a number 1 followed by 19 zeros) of actual S.H.N’s being formed by one blast. . With a Mass Spectroscopy device one can determine the actual number of neutrons and protons in the nuclei of samples put into the mass spec device.  A link to a Wikipedia write up on Mass Spectroscopy devices is given here:

            (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_spectrometry )

The data on these findings are on the Proton21 website (www.proton21.com.ua) in a condensed, fairly direct form. The complete results of 6 years worth of work are detailed in a book: Controlled Nucleo-synthesis, Breakthroughs in Experiment and Theory, Published Fall 2007,Dordrecht, the Netherlands ISBN: 978-1-4020-5873-8.

This author visited  the Proton21 facility, in June of 2005. A week was spent  at the Proton21 laboratory discussing the results of their work.

One key discovery of their efforts was that although, their single pulses put approximately 500 to 1000 joules of energy into their copper test electrodes, the resultant plasma flash was observed to produce roughly  50,000 joules of energy. This would mean a 50,000/1000 or 50 to 1 net energy gain. This net gain is believed to occur as a result of a combination of “spontaneous fissions” of the created Super Heavy Nuclei’s and “internal conversions” to antimatter and subsequent annihilation with normal matter. Both these processes liberate large amount of energy from small amounts of matter. This is the essence of the direct matter to energy conversion observed by Proton21.

The Ukrainian construction company which originally funded the work, stopped funding in mid -2006. Aside from literally “keeping the lights on” and completing the work to publish their book on the research effort, progress was halted at Proton21 as of 2007. However, there has been indication that as of 2008 new funding was found, and Proton21 is continuing their work.

It appears that the current funding source desires them to be somewhat more "covert" in the nature of their progress.

In the next Blog entry, we will discuss potential "cost effective" pulse power sources which could lead to PRACTICAL power producing devices using the Proton21 discoveries.

Follow Up on the "Most Marvelous Event"

Alas, due to computer problems only the TITLE was published.

Here is the event referred to:

What you see above are two identical polypropylene (or styrene, not sure on that) insulators.

The scale is in centimeters. On the right is the "orginal form" of the insulator. About 1 1/2 cm diameter with a .4 cm hole in the middle. About 2 cm long. The hole in the middle is threaded.

On the LEFT is a similar insulator which was "loose" in the vacuum chamber during one of the Proton21 200,000 Volt/500,000 amp/5 nanosecond discharges.

The important observation is not the distortion, but that the THREADS are now on the OUTSIDE of the insulator!

I.e., what ever distorted the insulator also TURNED IT INSIDE OUT.

I have NO rational explanation for this.

I cannot justify an atom by atom atomic collision explanation. Because the insulator easily calculates to about a mole of material ( 6 X 10^23 atoms), and the amount of material involved in the loss from the end of the tip of the Cu pin is about 1/100 of a mole.. the numbers are wrong.

It has been suggested that "shock waves" can do this. The question is IN A VACUUM CHAMBER what was the "shock wave" carried on?

Anyone with any suggestion would be appreciated.

A Discussion of the Ultimate Energy Resource: Direct Conversion of Matter To Energy

This Blogger worked in Nuclear Power for 20 years. My "minor" in Mechanical Engineering was Nuclear Engineering. I'm very well versed in all aspects of current and past work in nuclear fission, fusion and particle physics.

As such we can start this discussion by noting both nuclear fusion and nuclear fission do indeed convert matter to energy. Both methods of converting matter to energy have drawbacks such as:

• They involve complicated equipement
• They create tons of radioactive waste (nuclear FUSION too! In terms of reactor vessel/containment materials due to neutron activation of materials!)
• They demand huge "infrastructures" to support them

It will the goal of this Blogger to demonstrate that the Proton21 process(es) will lead to a method of converting matter to energy which will NOT generate significant radioactive waste (in fact, will probably consume its own waste), can use relatively simple equipment (no more complicated than the average fuel injected auto engine in the final versions of the technology) and will not require a huge infrastructure to support it.

Before discussing details of various equipment requirements and associated development needs to turn the Proton21 work from "lab demonstration" to "practicle devices", we need to discuss the magnitude of the resource to obtain an idea of the potenial of the technology.

To give the reader an idea of the potential of the "direct conversion of matter to energy" let us start by discussing "burning" a gram of "heavy hydrogen" (the form of hydrogen proposed for nuclear fusion reactions) in a fusion reactor.

It needs to be pointed out that although the "fusion" of 1 gram of heavy hydrogen releases the energy in about 1000 gallons of gasoline, the actually amount of matter converted to energy is about .0005 grams of the 1 gram input to the reaction.

Thus to produce 1000 gallons of gasoline equivalent energy one needs to convert .0005 grams of matter to energy.

We can then quickly calculate that if we converted ONE gram of matter completely to energy, we'd acheive an output equivalent to 2,000,000 gallons of gasoline. (A quick assesment of personal energy usage indicates this would be far more than the average American uses in a life time. So one gram of matter converted to energy would suffice for everyone's life energy use!)

But the key question here is, "Is there a way to do this?"

The answer from the "established" scientific community is that there exists NO way to generate enough antimatter in quantities large enough, and with a small enough input energy...to give "net" generation from antimatter. (Yes, the particle accellerator people DO produce antimatter. A few "anti-particles at a time.)

But there is a marked parallel between this assesment by the "established" science community, and the conclusions of a few individuals (myself included) and something that happened between the turn of the 19th century and the 20th century. That was the work by a couple of bicycle makers in Ohio, who did not accept the ESTABLISHED assesments of dozens of academics that "heavier than air flight" was IMPOSSIBLE. (It will be left to the reader to research the dozens of publications on the internet which detail the high distain which was heaped on the Wright Brothers by the "Scientific Establishment".

This Blogger will simply reproduce a page from the 1905 Scientific American to illustrate this distain:

Vol. XCIV
No. 2
January 13, 1905
Page 40

[Article verbatim and in full]

The Wright Aeroplane and its Fabled Performance

A Parisian automobile paper recently published a letter from the Wright brothers to Capt. Ferber of the French army, in which statements are made that certainly need some public substantiation from the Wright brothers. In the letter in question it is alleged that on September 26, the Wright motor-driven aeroplane covered a distance of 17.961 kilometers in 18 minutes and 9 seconds, and that its further progress was stopped by lack of gasoline. On September 29 a distance of 19.57 kilometers was covered in 19 minutes and 55 seconds, the gasoline supply again having been exhausted. On September 30 the machine traveled 16 kilometers in 17 minutes and 15 seconds; this time a hot bearing prevented further remarkable progress. Then came some eye-opening records. Here they are:

• October 3: 24.535 kilometers in 25 minutes and 5 seconds. (Cause of Stoppage, hot bearing.)
• October 4: 33.456 kilometers in 33 minutes and 17 seconds. (Cause of stoppage, hot bearing.)
• October 5: 38.956 kilometers in 33 minutes and 3 seconds. (Cause of stoppage, exhaustion of gasoline supply.)

It seems that these alleged experiments were made at Dayton, Ohio, a fairly large town, and that the newspapers of the United States, alert as they are, allowed these sensational performances to escape their notice. When it is considered that Langley never even successfully launched his man-carrying machine, that Langley's experimental model never flew more than a mile, and that Wright's mysterious aeroplane covered a reputed distance of 38 kilometers at the rate of one kilometer a minute, we have the right to exact further information before we place reliance on these French reports. Unfortunately, the Wright brothers are hardly disposed to publish any substantiation or to make public experiments, for reasons best known to themselves.[emphasis added] If such sensational and tremendously important experiments are being conducted in a not very remote part of the country, on a subject in which almost everybody feels the most profound interest, is it possible to believe that the enterprising American reporter, who, it is well known, comes down the chimney when the door is locked in his face--even if he has to scale a fifteen-story sky-scraper to do so-- would not have ascertained all about them and published them broadcast long ago? Why particularly, as it is further alleged, should the Wrights desire to sell their invention to the French government for a "million" francs. Surely their own is the first to which they would be likely to apply.

We certainly want more light on the subject.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May we quickly point out that similar distain has been given to the results of Proton21?

This despite THEIR openess in publishing their results, in detail? (And even having outside labs test their samples and give backing to their observations?)

However, we digress from the point we need to address: There probably currently exists methods and reasonably priced equipment to allow exploiting the Proton 21 results and turning them into methods to create usable energy from the creation of antimatter from the pulsed technology they suggest.

Before we detail the probable method of obtaining useful energy from the Proton21 discoveries, we should look at some "machines" that exist already in the USA which acheive similar results. (Next Posting)

Follow Up on the "Most Marvelous Event"

Alas, due to computer problems only the TITLE was published.

Here is the event referred to:

What you see above are two identical polypropylene (or styrene, not sure on that) insulators.

The scale is in centimeters. On the right is the "orginal form" of the insulator. About 1 1/2 cm diameter with a .4 cm hole in the middle. About 2 cm long. The hole in the middle is threaded.

On the LEFT is a similar insulator which was "loose" in the vacuum chamber during one of the Proton21 200,000 Volt/500,000 amp/5 nanosecond discharges.

The important observation is not the distortion, but that the THREADS are now on the OUTSIDE of the insulator!

I.e., what ever distorted the insulator also TURNED IT INSIDE OUT.

I have NO rational explanation for this.

I cannot justify an atom by atom atomic collision explanation. Because the insulator easily calculates to about a mole of material ( 6 X 10^23 atoms), and the amount of material involved in the loss from the end of the tip of the Cu pin is about 1/100 of a mole.. the numbers are wrong.

It has been suggested that "shock waves" can do this. The question is IN A VACUUM CHAMBER what was the "shock wave" carried on?

Anyone with any suggestion would be appreciated.

A most Marvelous Event that Proton21 Witnessed, "Inversion of Matter".

A most Marvelous Event that Proton21 Witnessed, "Inversion of Matter".

Try as I may, I have NOT be able to rationalize this happening which Proton21 observed in their over 5000 experiments before their 2007 Book, "Controlled Nucleosynthesis".

One experiment, somehow a 2 cm dia by 2.5 cm high, right cylinder insulator got left inside the vacuum test chamber where the 5 nano second, 500 joule (200,000 volt - 500,000 Amp) discharges were made.

Below you see what happened to the insulator:

 

A normal insulator is on the right. The "inverted" one is on the left.

What is interesting is that the hole in the normal insulator is threaded. The THREADS ENDED UP ON THE OUTSIDE of the "inverted one" (cone shaped) after the discharge.

What possible mechanism could cause this? I have no idea. Someone suggested a "shock wave".

Remember this was in a VACUUM chamber. The only shock force would be the small amount  of plasma from the dicharge. They estimate the insulator was 2 to 5 cm from the center of the discharge.

This is like a "space warp" occurred near the insulator.

Very strange. More on the Proton21 results and the relation to "infinite energy" in the next posts.

My how time flies where you are having fun!

And doing the "Normal" things of life.

Now, however, it is time to get back to the "abnormal" things of life.

When we left off on the second post, we were talking about the concept that Proton21 may have discovered the "ultimate energy source".

The second post introduced the concept of the JOULE as a unit of Energy.

To bring the point home again, one Joule (which is a unit of energy, such as a British Thermal Unit, which is the amount of energy needed to raise ONE pound of water one degree Farenheight) delivered per second is one WATT.

We all have a pretty good feel about WATTS as we plug things into the wall every day, and read on the device (a lamp, a PC, a heater) "This Unit Consumes 100, 200, 1500 Watts".

Now in the Proton21 case we have a pulse of 200,000 Volts with 500,000 Amperes. Fortunately because of a "unified" units system, we can merely multiply these two numbers together and come up with  100,000,000,000 Watts. Which is 100,000 MILLION watts, or more power than all the generating stations in the USA produce at one time.

Ah, but let us not forget that this is JOULES PER SECOND. Since the pulse length of the Proton21 pulse is 5 nano seconds, or 5 BILLIONTHS of a second, we have to multiply this hugh number by .000000001 to find the ENERGY in Joules, which is 500 Joules.

At this point we need to become a little more esoteric. Because although the INPUT energy in the Proton21 work is easy to account for, the OUTPUT energy, is far more difficult.

That is because when the tips of the electrodes "explode" as shown below:

Of course it takes energy to deform the end. Energy is also expressed in a visible light flash that comes from the discharge, energy also comes out in the form of X-ray emissions, and energy comes out in a "plasma pulse" of various energy (speed) atomic particles which come from the reaction(s) stimulated by the "self consistent collapse" at the tip end.

Proton21 documents all of these in their book, "Controlled Nucleosynthesis", Springer Verlang, April, 2007. When they tally ALL the observed energy outputs, they find between 20,000 to 30,000 JOULES are released every time they do a pulse.

Now there are two questions we MUST ASK about the nature of this "over unity" energy phenomenon.

Question 1:  Where does the energy come from?

Question 2:  What does it take to "set up" this reaction. (I.e., does it take a week to set up a pulse, a day, an hour? How often can pulses be made. Is there any practicality to this process to create net energy outputs?)

It has been pointed out that I need to Start With Basics!

Welcome to the "real world" of communicating with the "masses".

There is a problem with "technical people" that they (this author included) presume everyone knows as much as they do about a subject or more.

This isn't arrogance. It's more like IGNORANCE. Ignorance of the fact that once you become techincally involved in a field, after a bit of "specialization" you leave the "general public" behind.

SO I'm going to try to make "amends" with some "General Energy" talk.

The first thing I want to do is to introduce the "basic" measurement of energy we are going to use throughout this blog. That unit of energy is called the JOULE. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule

(Named after James Prescott Joule, who was one of the first people to study the nature of heat energy and to work on methods of quantifying such energies.)

You might say, "Oh my, this is something I have no grasp of!" Yet, you DO! Yes, you are much MUCH more familiar with Joules of energy than you can imagine.

You know what a 100 Watt light bulb is like don't you?

Well, a 100 Watt light bulb uses 100 Joules PER SECOND.

So in one hour (3600 seconds) a 100 Watt Light Bulb needs 3600*100 = 360,000 joules to run.

Now we can start TALKING about the work of Proton21 (www.proton21.com.ua) and the significance of their results. Because their INPUT PULSES in their discharge chamber (which they claim cause a transient 8000:1 compression wave to travel through the tips of their Copper Anode "targets", have a mere 500 joules or less in them.

HOWEVER they observe (from Xrays, Light Flashes, energetic particles, electromagnetic pulses) about 30,000 JOULES of net energy OUTPUT during one of their discharges.

What does this mean? It means if you made one of their pulses every second, you could produce about 30,000 Joules of net energy per second, or about 30,000 Watts (runs a few small homes).

In coming posts, we will explore the "source" of this energy. And we will explain how it can be traced to a process which is DIRECTLY CONVERTING MATTER TO ENERGY. We will also explain why this discovery should lead to the "Ideal" energy source for humanity.

But first, let's talk "All Known Energy Sources".

Obviously we have oil, gas and coal! And the primary problem with these sources, is NO, not "Global Warming", but the fact that they are difficult to locate in the needed quantities, and that they will "run out". Thus we need "alternatives" to "conventional energy.

Alternatives to the current systems of, Oil, Coal, Gas

·          Nuclear Power (Fission)

·           Nuclear Fusion

·           Solar and Wind

 

I will discuss the limitations of each.

 

A. Nuclear Fission:  Nuclear fission requires a huge investment in plants and equipment before any energy is produced. It also requires a huge infrastructure for processing natural uranium into "enriched" uranium for fuel. (I suggest use of Wikipedia for the definition of "enriched uranium.)

 

B. Nuclear Fusion: This is the (alledged) way the sun makes its energy. This is the power source in a "hydrogen bomb"(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atoms_for_Peace) in 1953. This was a year after the first Hydrogen (fusion) bomb was detonated in 1952. Part of continued funding for weapons programs was made contingent by congress, on investing money in a “nuclear fusion” research program. Approximately $700 million to $1000 million per year is allocated for “nuclear fusion” research currently on through the Federal government. (Department of Energy).There is an observation by some that nuclear fusion is the “power source which never was and never will be”. The track record of nuclear fusion is one of proclamations about every 5 to 10 years that a new device/test/lab has created a “hotter/longer/stronger” fusion reaction. This is followed by the claim that in 10 to 15 years a “break even” fusion device will be available. Sadly, articles and references making this promise, going back to the early ‘60’s can be obtained readily.

 

To date there has never been any fusion fusion research device which has come near or gone over "breakeven". (That would be when the energy produced by the fusion reaction in the test device exceeds the energy put into the device.0 The exception would be the Princeton Tokomak, which, in 1999, was injected with tritium, and produced a 17 MW burst for a 10 MW input. (Lasting seconds only.)

 

Since tritium costs about $7000 a gram, and the gram of tritium has a energy potential of about 900 gallons of gasoline, the "gasoline equivalent cost" would be $7 a gallon.

 

Another problem: This would presume an infrastructure for supplying hundreds of pounds of tritium per year. Current production is pounds per year, for weapons and research work. Even a mere "renovation" of the current supply source, 10 years ago, cost over a billion dollars. Building enough "converter reactors" to supply the tritium for the fusion reactors would cost TRILLIONS of dollars. Not practical or economic.

 

C. Solar and Wind

 

Solar and Wind have been the golden children of those who advocate a so called “soft energy path”.

It takes a hard look and a hard heart to understand that if we attempt to turn our energy dependence to solar and wind the immediate effects would be:

 

1.      An increase in the cost of cost for electric and heating power by factors of 5 to 10 times..

2.      A commitment of huge amounts of expensive resources for the building of collection devices. This commitment which would strain production of copper, aluminum, steel, plastics, to the limit. (And influence the ultimate cost factor, driving it higher than original estimates based on current costs of production materials.)

3.      Projects to date have been vastly over-subsidized and with daunting payback intervals measured in decades.

  

Unfortunately, clarifying this issue in the minds of the general public is a difficult, if not impossible task. It would be best left to potential investors in these alleged “free energy sources” to investigate these ill-founded projects to find the true costs. The generic lesson is that low density power sources have “recovery and capitol equipment costs” which are not economically feasible.ing

 

What is needed is something which is :

 

A. Unlimited.

B. High power density.

C. Has no waste (except heat energy release)

D. Is acheivable with reasonable investment in equipment. (Realistic pay backs.)

 

In coming blogs we will show that Proton21 probably has found this "ideal energy source".

The BEGINING of the Blog

Welcome to a Blog which will hope to "revolutionize the world".

First of all a minor amount of background information. This blog is written and maintained by a 50ish, mild mannered, "Dilbert" like Engineer.

Well, maybe not THAT mild mannered. After all in his brief life he's managed to work in Nuclear power, Medical Devices, X-ray systems design, Fossil Fuels (including refinery, gas processing, and coal/electric generation). He's also managed to find time to perform (vocally) with a couple of major symphonies, one regional opera company, and a couple of small, quasi-professional vocal groups.

BUT in the long run, he's most happy about his 6 year association with a small, determined group of researchers in Kiev Ukraine, who call themselves, "Proton21".  (More about that name later on.)

In the Spring of 2003, I began an Email correspondence with a group calling itself, "Proton21" in Kiev Ukraine.

My motivation was the result of finding a couple of references to their work, mostly in "Science curiosities" type articles, which gave abbreviated summaries of their work.

One can still find some fine summations of their work on their web page: (linked here)
Proton21 Website  It should not throw one off that their work seems "dated" and almost to "stop" in 2005.

There is a good reason for that appearance.

However, let us quickly summarize the nature of their work, and the results that they claim on their web page:

1. Their work involves study of a "pulsed power" system. (On the order of 100,000 Amps DC, at 500,000 volts for 5 nano seconds)
2. Their pulses are performed in a specially structured vacuum discharge chamber, and between two specially constructed electrodes.
3. Their "anodes" are pretty much always the same. A "pin" of pure copper (99.9947% pure, or typical electrolytic refined copper) about 1 cm long, 0.5 mm in diameter with a perfectly shaped hemispherical head.

 

To help understand what you are looking at, this illustration which is a more "isometric" view is given:

 

These pins are mounted on a 1 cm diameter, fine copper wire mesh, at the bottom of the vacuum test chamber.

Here is a top down view of the end of the pin, after the 500,000 Volt, 100,000 amp, 5 nanosecond discharge (about 500 joules):

 

Note the spot analysis using X-ray florescence (in a scanning electron microscope). Also note the appearance of elements and percentages of elements not originally in the specimen.

What is MORE amazing than these nuclear transmutations, are the "overspray" products on the Cu mounting screen, as shown here:

 

Now these are just a couple EXAMPLES of the MASSIVE NUCLEAR TRANSMUTATIONS that Proton21 has observed. Basically they have found (with the exception of the gasses at room temperature) ALL the known periodic table elements as the result of their "transmutations".

Now I will make this statement IMMEDIATELY..(and then I'll explain it for the lay public in upcoming blogs), they back calculate to less than 100 Electron Volts per nuclear transmutation.

Those "rigidly educated" in standard "nuclear physics" can now stop reading, as such people "KNOW" this is "impossible".

However, for those with good curiosity, or Dilbert types out there...please stay tuned. As there is "more to come" and it will, as Alice said, get.."Curiouser and curiouser!"