Summary
Low-energy nuclear reactions are showing some remarkable progress with respect to energy (excess heat) production and transmuted element detection, but experiments remain only thinly reproducible. LENR also suffers from a basic lack of understanding of the governing physics.
There is also a compelling need for a theory that can explain production rates and lead to specific electrode treatments and electrolyte compositions and predictions of reaction power, energy and products. The Widom[-Larsen] theoretical construct appears promising but lacks robust experimental verification and rigorous peer review.
The polarizing history of LENR is a detriment to expanding research efforts, and it seems unlikely that deployable/useable devices could be expected within a five- to ten-year horizon.
Since 2006 no deployable/useable devices were deployed. It has been five years since the report.
It remains to be seen if nothing gets deployed over the next five years.
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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