DOE to Study Low Energy Nucelar Reactions

The DOE announced this news through a press released posted to the ARPA-E website with little fanfare on September 13, 2022. Because of presentations made back in July at the ICCF24 conference, we knew this was coming and we are excited that it is finally official.  The brief announcement reads:

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced up to $10 million in funding to establish clear practices to determine whether low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) could be the basis for a potentially transformative carbon-free energy source. The funding is part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) LENR Exploratory Topic, which aims to break the stalemate of research in this space.

“ARPA-E is all about risk and exploring where others cannot go, which is why we’ve set out with this LENR Exploratory Topic to conclusively answer the question ‘should this field move forward, or does it not show promise?’” said ARPA-E Acting Director and Deputy Director for Technology Dr. Jenny Gerbi. “We look forward to seeing the intrepid teams that come forward to approach this field of study with new perspectives and state-of-the-art scientific and technical capabilities.”

LENR Exploratory Topic awardees will pursue hypotheses-driven approaches toward producing publishable evidence of LENR in top-tier scientific journals by testing/confirming specific hypotheses (rather than focusing only on replication), identifying and verifying control of experimental variables and triggers, supporting more comprehensive diagnostics and analysis, and improving access to broader expertise and capabilities on research teams.

As of mid-February, the DOE has now selected 8 teams to fund. Click here to learn more about the funded projects.

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See ARPA-E, U.S. Department of Energy Announces Up to $10 Million to Study Low-Energy Nuclear Reactors, September 13, 2022.  ARPA-e Update of February 17, 2023, U.S. Department of Energy Announces $10 Million in Funding to Projects Studying Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions: ARPA-E Selects 8 Projects to Apply Scientific and Rigorous Approach Focused on Specific Type of Nuclear Energy.