The LRDI began with a pilot project for Dr. Edmund Storms, who was one of the earliest researchers to follow up on the 1989  announcement.  He  began  his  LENR  investigations while at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), where he already had a 35-year research career (since the mid-1950s) at the time of the LENR announcement. He had worked on high-temperature materials primarily for the nuclear rocket3 (Rover) and space reactor4 (SP-100) programs. This work led to his report on the refractory nitrides and carbides5 as well as his book on refractory carbides.1

Dr. Storms has conducted investigations and developed explanations for the phenomenon in the 30 years since the announcement. His most prominent publications  are  his two books, published in 20072 and 20143. He was honored (along with Michael McKubre) by Wired Magazine4 in 1998 as one of the 25 people in the U.S. making a significant con-tribution to new ideas. He was awarded the Preparata Medal, the most prestigious award in the LENR field, in 2005. He has also co-authored a report demonstrating that LENR is science and not pseudoscience.5

Dr. Storms has developed a novel explanation for LENR, referred to as the “nanocrack and hydroton” hypothesis, which is explained at length in his 2014 book. He proposes that numerous narrow — approximately one nanometer — cracks are formed by stress in the host material, such as palladium. The cracks become occupied by deuterium or protium nuclei (hydrogen nuclei with  or  without  a  neutron) that are held in the crack by negative charges on the walls of the crack. The hydrogen nuclei become arranged in linear structures termed hydrotons and vibrate at high frequency. During the cycles of the vibration, the nuclei approach each other closely — so closely that fusion occurs and some of their mass is converted to energy in each cycle. The energy is conveyed from the hydroton to the host material as photons and causes the lattice to increase in temperature. The fusion energy, detected by the temperature increase, is referred to as “excess heat” – energy above (sometimes far above) what can reasonably be attributed to chemical reactions. This hypothesis, like others in the LENR field, has not yet been verified by reproducible experiments.

Dr. Storms’ LENR research record is extensive and goes back to his earliest work at LANL. He has produced about 125 publications and over 110 unpublished reports. He has thousands of electronic files on his current computer, CDs and DVDs, ZIP discs, VHS tapes, a retired external hard drive and 3.5-inch floppy disks. His hardcopy records are in 14 hanging-file storage tubs.

Dr. Storms’ lab was set up to perform LENR experiments using the electrolytic cell, gas loading and gas discharge methods. Most of the experiments are described in ten lab notebooks.  He  reviewed  the  notebooks  and  prepared  a “Work History” summary in a spreadsheet that has 2,750 entries. His LENR library has 150 books on the subject and over 6,000 electronic and hardcopy papers authored by him- self and nearly all of the other researchers in the LENR field. He has a website, LENR Explained6, to present his books and other works, and he helped Jed Rothwell establish the LENR-CANR.org website7 based initially on his private collection of publications.

Three rounds of interviews totaling more than 22 hours were conducted and transcribed covering Dr. Storms’ entire range of LENR investigations. He attended nearly all of the ICCF conferences from ICCF1 to ICCF18, and he has a nearly complete collection of their proceedings as well as a large number of photos of the conference attendees and events.

A timeline has been prepared for Dr. Storms’ LENR research career based on the records and interviews. It has eight phases consisting of periods of support from sponsors interspersed with self-supported investigations:

  1. LENR Work at Los Alamos National Laboratory (3/1989- 8/1991)
  2. Independent Investigation 1 (9/1991-12/1993)
  3. ENECO Support (1/1994-2/1998)
  4. Independent Investigation 2 (3/1998-6/2000)
  5. Lattice Energy Support (7/2000-2/2006)
  6. Independent Investigation 3 (3/2006-2/3007)
  7. Kiva Labs (3/2007-3/2012)
  8.  Independent Investigation 4 (4/2012-12/2015)

Four reports have been prepared for the Storms pilot project:
1) Information collection8; 
2) Organization (timeline)9;
3) Documentation10; and
4) Summary report11. 

The project was reported at ICCF21 in 2018 as a poster.12\ The Storms LENR Research Documentation Project has also been described on his LENR Explained website (click here). The project reported Dr. Storms’ work through 2015, so a supplemental project is underway to extend the coverage for 2016 to 2018.

  1. Storms, E., 1967. The Refractory Carbides, Academic Press.
  2. Storms, E. 2007. The Science of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction: A Comprehensive Compilation of Evidence and Explanations about Cold Fusion, World Scientific Publishing.
  3. Storms, E. 2014. The Explanation of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction: An Examination of the Relationship Between Observation and Explanation, Infinite Energy Press.
  4. Wired Staff. 1998. “The Wired 25,” Wired Magazine, November.
  5. Storms, E. and Grimshaw, T. 2010. “Judging the Validity of the Fleischmann-Pons Effect,” Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science, 3, 9-30.
  6. https://lenrexplained.com
  7. Rothwell, J. and Storms, E. 2003. “The LENR-CANR Website, Its Past and Future,” Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Cold Fusion, August 24-29, Cambridge, MA, 939-942.
  8. Grimshaw, T. and Storms, E. 2017. “Cold Fusion Experiments and Theory Development: Documentation of Dr. Edmund Storms’ LENR Research Career, Stage 1 (Information Collection) Report,” April 18, http://lenrexplained.com/wp- content/uploads/2019/01/Storms_Stage1_2ndDraft_170418.pdf
  9. Grimshaw, T. and Storms, E. 2017. “Cold Fusion Experiments and Theory Development: Documentation of Dr. Edmund Storms’ LENR Research Career, Stage 2 (Organization) Report,” June 3, http://lenrexplained.com/wp- content/uploads/2019/01/Storms_Stage2_2ndDraft_170603.pdf
  10. Grimshaw, T. and Storms, E. 2018. “Cold Fusion Experiments and Theory Development: Documentation of Dr. Edmund Storms’ LENR Research Career, Stage 3 (Documentation) Report,”                           February 18, http://lenrexplained.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ Storms_Stage3_2ndDraft_180218.pdf
  11. Grimshaw, T. and Storms, E. 2018. “Documentation of Dr. Edmund Storms’ 29 Years of Cold Fusion Research: Experiments, Explanations, and Related Scientific Contributions. Draft Summary Report,” May 2, http://lenrexplained.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Storms_LRDP_Summary_180502.pdf
  12. Grimshaw, T. 2018. “Documentation of Dr. Edmund Storms’ 29 Years of CF Research: Lessons Learned for Long- Term LENR Researchers,” Poster at the 21st International Conference on Cold Fusion, June 3-8, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO