On March 30, 2011, President Obama mandated that the United States will decrease its dependency on foreign oil by one-third over the next 10 years. In his address, Obama called for new incentives to boost production of oil, natural gas and biofuels; tougher fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles; and greater reliance on cleaner sources of energy, including nuclear.  Conservation and alternative energy sources (windmills, ocean wave harvesting technologies, solar energy, hybrid nuclear reactors, biofuels, bacterial batteries) currently under development will not be able to meet the goals outlined by Obama.  Furthermore, the recent damage to the nuclear reactors in Japan after the 9.0 earthquake and resultant tsunami has raised awareness as to the safety of existing nuclear reactors using enriched uranium and plutonium as a fuel.  A new, paradigm-shifting technology is required to meet the growing energy needs of the United States and other countries. Low energy nuclear reactions (LENR), is such a paradigm-shifting technology.  Once harnessed, LENR would (1) have the potential to yield large amounts of energy, (2) use an abundant fuel source, (3) produce only small amounts of manageable waste, and (4) generate no greenhouse gases. In this communication, a brief history of LENR will be given. In addition new experimental results will be discussed as well as potential applications of LENR.

Greening of America: A new nuclear future

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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