Verification of the George Oshawa Experiment for Anomalous Production of Iron from Carbon Arc in Water

The following two technical notes, "Anoma­ lous Reactions During Arcing Between Carbon Rods in Water" and "Verification of the George Oshawa Experiment for Anomalous Production of Iron from Carbon Arc in Water," are unique among the various papers that have been pub­ lished in Fusion Technology in the area of cold fusion and nuclear reactions in solids. The first discusses experiments intended to prove or dis­ prove earlier repons of anomalous rJroduction of iron in a carbon arc, while the second discusses a variety of possible related nuclear transmutations. Both studies are directly, or indirectly, related to the subject of nuclear reactions under non-hot­ plasma conditions, i.e., closely related to the field of possible nuclear reactions in electrodes during electrolysis in materials like palladium with deuterium im­ planted by high gas pressure, plasmas, or electrical discharges. Both studies imply that reactions might occur under electron volt background conditions that are even further removed from hot -plasma react ion condi t ions than those encountered in electrolytic cells. (However, even in electrolytic celb. there have been sporadic reports of the measurement of various product elements that imply nuclear transmutations can occur under these conditions. [See V. A. Tsarev and D. H. Worlepge, "Cold Fusion Studies in the USSR," Fusion Tech­ nol., 22, 138 {I 992) ancLR. T. Bush, "A Light Water Excess Heat Reaction Sug­ gests That 'Cold Fusion' May Be 'Alkali-Hydrogen Fusion,'" Fusion Technol., 22,301 (1992).]) By anyone's standards, these results seem bizarre indeed, t he authors themselves stress the need for much more work. Because of this, four refer­ ees, with widely varying backgrounds, were used to review each of these tech­ nical notes. The decision to publish came down to the fact that the referees were mostly "neutral" in their assessments, saying that they could find no egregious errors but that the studies were not definitive and, hence, may be premature. Still, based on the responsibility for a journal to disseminate in­ formation to the community in a timely way so that further work is fostered or that pertinent issues are raised, the majority recommendation was to pub­ lish these technical notes now. Readers should keep in mind the purpose of these technical notes, namely, to provide provocative observations about a possible new field involving fusion-like nuclear reactions.