Revisiting the Early BARC Tritium Results

Within days of the F&P announcement of 1989, several groups at BARC embarked on a program to look for the generation of neutrons and tritium when deuterium (or hydrogen) is loaded into metals such as Pd, Ti and Ni. Electrolytic, gas and plasma loading techniques were deployed. Post run electrolyte samples were analyzed for tritium content using standard liquid scintillation techniques. In the case of gas and plasma loaded “dry” samples, surface tritium content was measured directly using windowless beta counters. Autoradiography was deployed as a very effective tool to monitor the spatial distribution of tritium in the near surface layers of test samples. The first confirmation of copious tritium generation was obtained on 21 April 1989 in a commercial “Milton Roy” Pd–D2O electrolytic cell. The results obtained during the first year of the BARC Cold Fusion campaign were presented at ICCF 1 in March 1990 where we reported observing tritium generation in 22 different electrolytic cells, which were set up totally independently by diverse research groups. The present paper revisits the early BARC tritium results obtained in a variety of experimental configurations during the period 1989–1996.