JOURNEY OF AN INDIAN COLD FUSION CRUSADER:

TRAVAILS OF DR.MAHADEVA SRINIVASAN

Academic background :

* B.Sc (Phy), University of Madras (1955) (Vivekananda College)

I served as an experimental Nuclear Physicist in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC),
Mumbai for 40 years (1957 to 1997) after having graduated from the First batch of the BARC
Training School. My specialization was in the general area of Nuclear Science and Technology,
focusing on the "Physics of Fission Chain Reactions and Fusioning Plasmas". At the time of my
retirement I was Head of Neutron Physics Division of BARC and also Associate Director of its
Physics Group. My main contributions were in the design, construction and experimentation with the
Purnima series of experimental nuclear reactors. My group was also responsible for designing and
setting up the 20 KWth U-233 fueled KAMINI neutron source reactor at the Indira Gandhi Centre of
Atomic Research (IGCAR), at Kalpakkam, near the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. KAMINI reactor
is still being used for research at IGCAR, for neutron radiaographic examination of highly irradiated
spent fuel rods made of PlutoniumUranium oxide/carbide discharged from the Fast Breeder Test
Reactor.

I was also instrumental in initiating research into a version of a hot fusion device called the Plasma
Focus (PF), which is a type of Z-Pinch. The auto-radiographic image on the cover page of this
Current Science Special issue represents anomalous tritium production via LENR processes, on the
top surface of a Titanium anode exposed to deuterium plasma in a PF device.

BARC got involved in Cold Fusion research within 24 hours of the Fleischmann-Pons
announcement of 23rd March 1989. All of us heard of the F & P announcement through a four line
news item which appeared in the 24th March 1989 issue of the Times of India Newspaper. The then
Director of BARC Dr. P.K. Iyengar also saw the same news clip and was equally excited by the claim
that fusion reactions seem to be happening in a simple electrolysis cell. First thing in the morning he
convened a meeting of selected group heads drawn from diverse disciplines to brainstorm the
implication of the news and encouraged us all to set up experiments to verify/replicate the claim. On
21st April 1989 the first burst of neutrons was detected from an electrolytic cell set up in the Heavy
water Division; production of massive amounts of Tritium was soon confirmed in many cells at
BARC. There was an atmosphere of friendly competition among the dozen groups. A summary of the
main experimental findings obtained during the first couple of years of the BARC effort is presented
in a paper in this Current Science Special Section. The first review paper of the Cold Fusion field was
published by us in Current Science journal in April 1991. (Ed Storms review paper appeared soon
thereafter in Fusion Technology.)

In 1990 when a new Director of BARC assumed charge, he was (unfortunately for us) pursuaded by
the highly negative report of the US Department of Energy (DOE) committee and decided to
withdraw Institutional support to Cold Fusion research, although he did not directly prevent
continuation of experiments by anyone using whatever equipment, materials and funding was
available within a Division. But he nevertheless made it absolutely clear that he did not believe in
Cold Fusion. Under the circumstances there were many who succumbed to the pressure and stopped
cold fusion related experiments while some of us continued, inspite of risking our careers. Myself and
a few staunch supporters and collaborators continued until my retirement in 1997. But we certainly
had to pay a price; many goodies and awards that were bestowed on faithful followers of the
management were denied to us.

Even after retirement from BARC I continued to very closely follow the progress of the field. I
have attended 16 out of the 18 International Conferences held since March 1990, serving as a member
of the International Advisory Committee for the ICCF series of conferences.

In January 2008 I organized a one day brain storming meet titled Energy Concepts for the 21st
Century at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Bangalore. This was attended by
Dr.Michael McKubre and Steven Krivit representing the CMNS community and many top level
nuclear scientists from India; a report on this meeting was published in Current Science in March
2008.

In 2011 I conducted the 16th International Conference in the ICCF series (ICCF 16) at Chennai,
serving as the Chairman of the Organizing Committee. This conference was organized with no
financial or other support from any Indian Scientific laboratory, although I did manage to obtain some
funding from a few Govt. agencies. A unique feature of the ICCF 16 conference was, associated with
it we also organized three satellite meetings. First was a pre conference tutorial School conducted at
IIT Madras and two post conference workshops. The first post conference workshop was on Materials
issues of LENR devices and was a two-day event held at Mahabalipuram near the IGCAR Campus.
This was jointly conducted with the Materials Science Group of IGCAR. Dr. Vittorio Violante of
ENEA Frascati served as a co-convener of this workshop. The second post conference event was a
one day workshop on Biological Transmutations conducted jointly with SRM University, in the
outskirts of the city of Chennai. Profs. Vladimir Vysotskii and Jean Paul Biberian were the main
speakers in this meeting.

After the new Narendra Modi government came to power at Delhi in May 2014 with a massive
electoral mandate, I initiated a fresh attempt to try and get the new Government. to revive Cold
Fusion Research in India. The publication of this Special Section in Current Science which is a result
of our fresh efforts, has already played an important role in awakening Indian Scientists to the reality
of the phenomenon of CF/LENR.

I had the opportunity to meet in person at Delhi (on Nov 8th 2014) the Minister for Power Mr.
Piyush Goyal who is also the in charge of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE),
(thanks to the efforts of a very influential BJP party supporter). The minister reacted very favorably to
the potential of LENR and has been instrumental in the formation of a high level 20 member
Advisory Group on LENR which has been set up under the Chairmanship of a former Chairman of
the Indian Atomic Energy commission. The first meeting of the newly formed group is to take place
in March 2015 funded by MNRE. We hope that some concrete action will follow soon thereafter and
research in this important field will commence once again in India..

26 years after being bitten by the Cold Fusion bug. I feel happy and vindicated that my battles with
the powers that be in India, are beginning to bear some fruit !