Joe Eck and Superconductors.ORG reports a successful reformulation of the original HTSC known as YBCO to achieve room-temperature superconductivity.
To accomplish this - effectively tripling the Tc, only the chemical formula was altered slightly but with the same elements. YBCO (Y123) was the first high temperature superconductor discovered in 1987. The same elements are used, in different proportions, resulting in a different nanostructure. The lesson here for LENR could be altering an original discovery can be easier and better which is mentioned in the context of the Stan Szpak video alluded to in a recent post. In that video, it is disclosed and was generally ignored by the pundits, that using electrolysis (under a magnetic field with a switch from deuterium to hydrogen, and from lithium carbonate to lithium chloride) in 3 out of 10 experiments a total meltdown was achieved. Unbelievable. The melting point of palladium is 2,831°F or 1,555°C and before that can occurred the electrolyte must be boiled away. We are talking about a massively energetic event which is happening with some degree of regularity with watt-level input, yet without residual radiation. Although meltdowns in LENR have been achieved before, they are rare and generally not reproducible so the importance of 3-for-10 is rather incredible, made more shocking by the abandonment of that R&D program. It would be comparable, even more remarkable than a baseball pitcher throwing three out of ten perfect games in one season. The meltdowns happened in 2012 (published by Szpak and Dea in J. Cond. Mat. Nuc. Sci) before SPAWAR was disbanded and apparently the meltdown results were not pursued by anyone else thereafter, despite the shocking military implications. Too bad, but symptomatic of the many external circumstances which have kept LENR from advancing. I suppose the conspiracy theorist (not there are any of them here) might cynically opine that the Navy R&D program was ostensibly shut down as a false front, so that it could be moved into a dark program however, none of the participants seem to believe that at least not publicly. It is the only scenario which would make one think that all large bureaucracies are inherently incompetent (Rickover notwithstanding).
