The Basics
English / Nederlands
What is Quasifusion?
It is the third process of nuclear energy production, next to fusion and fission.
It is nucleosynthesis, resulting from radiative n-capture, e-capture, beta decay, and quasiparticle-assisted weak nuclear transformations or QAWNT (isotopic shifts and transmutations)
It is nucleosynthesis, resulting from radiative n-capture, e-capture, beta decay, and quasiparticle-assisted weak nuclear transformations or QAWNT (isotopic shifts and transmutations)
Short and Easy Explanation of Quasifusion
For a long time, we couldn't really understand how the sun works because we couldn't replicate its heat production in experiments. But with hydrogen/metal experiments, it became possible. The fusion of the sun, as is well known, is caused by the energy released by protons, or hydrogen nuclei, that first combine into heavy hydrogen. Thus bound neutrons are produced, which are heavier neutral nuclear particles. However, the formation of this heavy hydrogen, a so-called isotope we call deuterium, turned out to yield more energy than we expected when we do this experimentally by electrochemically treating normal hydrogen. The problem of understanding how this can happen, was based on a false assumption. We thought that in the first step of the formation of a neutron needed to synthesize deuterium, the so-called positron antimatter formed in the process, would not contribute to the energy yield of a low energy nuclear reaction experiment (a so-called LENR).
However, in replicated LENR experiments was demonstrated that, thanks to this - as we assume - operative antimatter, bound neutrons may form from ordinary hydrogen with the release of energy, even before heavy nuclei such as helium manifest. This difficult to accept and understand but in many experiments since 1989 reproduced fact of research, can be explained in an acceptable way with the following hypothesis. It is achieved by distinguishing in three steps a single reaction in which three protons and two electrons transform into a heavy hydrogen (deuterium) nucleus, a free neutron and two neutrinos:
However, in replicated LENR experiments was demonstrated that, thanks to this - as we assume - operative antimatter, bound neutrons may form from ordinary hydrogen with the release of energy, even before heavy nuclei such as helium manifest. This difficult to accept and understand but in many experiments since 1989 reproduced fact of research, can be explained in an acceptable way with the following hypothesis. It is achieved by distinguishing in three steps a single reaction in which three protons and two electrons transform into a heavy hydrogen (deuterium) nucleus, a free neutron and two neutrinos:
- Step I - a proton may convert into a neutron and positron, provided sufficient local energy is supplied by the surrounding condensed matter environment. The positron thus produced immediately dissolves with an electron and then may release more energy in high frequency light energy (gamma) than it costs to form a neutron.
- Step II - this gamma energy provides enough energy to produce a second neutron with a second electron and a second proton. This second neutron can only be created if it is bound in the synthesis of a heavy (deuteron) hydrogen nucleus in a third step, without producing an antimatter particle.
- Step III - if the second neutron, being captured by a third proton, results in that heavy hydrogen nucleus, this chain of low-energy electron and neutron capture processes (LECR) ultimately may yield a net energy of a couple of times more the mass energy of an electron in the form of gamma energy, than was put in. That energy is released because a composite nucleus weighs less than the sum of the particle weights individually.
The free neutron released in step one is often difficult or impossible to measure because it can undergo all kinds of other compound reactions that lead to heavier particles. The same applies to the two smallest subatomic particles (known as neutrinos) produced in the reaction, which together carry away the energy equivalent to that of about one electron. That energy cannot be converted, while the gamma produced can be used. If, given adequate experimental containment, the free neutron then combines with the synthesized deuteron to form an even heavier (tritium) hydrogen nucleus, an additional amount of energy - equivalent to about 12 times the mass-energy of an electron - can be released in the form of gamma radiation, which depending on the experimental conditions can be converted into heat and/or electricity.
And lo and behold, in a LENR setup with adequate plasma confinement, temperature, and electrical voltage, a for long not understood excess of energy and various types of hydrogen appear. This concept of a so-called p-p-p triple proton hybrid neutronization process, is backed up by different neutron reaction models of LENR. Even though it requires further research, it does offer a hypothesis known and accepted in its research community as a multi-body weak-interaction-assisted form of nucleosynthesis in condensed matter.
By combining these reactions, we now have a method for generating nuclear energy in a highly efficient manner, modeled after the processes that occur in a star—and we can do so in a highly efficient, relatively simple, safe, and cost-effective way. Nuclear energy is, thus understood the quasifusion way, more a consequence of the formation of nuclei than of the fusion of nuclei. That is why we speak of quasifusion concerning the p-p-p chain of nucleosynthesis, taking place on the basis of decay and capture reactions. One can form a self-sustaining loop with this process, so LENR experimenters confirm. With the associated reactions, we thus may increase the net energy yield to well above the 1.36 times the energy input required for the basic three-step p-p-p reaction. This not only gives us safe small nuclear generators for private use, but also allows us to fully electrify the industry and public transport. The impact of our outdated 20th-century energy policy on the environment can thus be reduced.
And lo and behold, in a LENR setup with adequate plasma confinement, temperature, and electrical voltage, a for long not understood excess of energy and various types of hydrogen appear. This concept of a so-called p-p-p triple proton hybrid neutronization process, is backed up by different neutron reaction models of LENR. Even though it requires further research, it does offer a hypothesis known and accepted in its research community as a multi-body weak-interaction-assisted form of nucleosynthesis in condensed matter.
While something likewise occurs p-e-p with just one electron and one extra proton in the sun to a very small extent, hydrogen isotopes are much easier produced in a low energy reactor. Even though this explanation cannot definitively account for all the excess energy we observe in LENR, we are nevertheless on the right track in terms of understanding the underlying reaction of this catalytic p-p-p quasifusion process, because all of these reactions proceed according to the standard rules of particle physics.. Since the announcement of "cold fusion" by Fleischmann and Pons in 1989, this chain of so-called low energy capture reactions of nucleosynthesis, has been known as a third process of generating clean nuclear energy. Now we may assume that it happens as a consequence of a) converting electrons into usable energy by neutronization and b) compounding nothing but heavier nuclear particles without considerable harmful radiation or radioactive waste.
By combining these reactions, we now have a method for generating nuclear energy in a highly efficient manner, modeled after the processes that occur in a star—and we can do so in a highly efficient, relatively simple, safe, and cost-effective way. Nuclear energy is, thus understood the quasifusion way, more a consequence of the formation of nuclei than of the fusion of nuclei. That is why we speak of quasifusion concerning the p-p-p chain of nucleosynthesis, taking place on the basis of decay and capture reactions. One can form a self-sustaining loop with this process, so LENR experimenters confirm. With the associated reactions, we thus may increase the net energy yield to well above the 1.36 times the energy input required for the basic three-step p-p-p reaction. This not only gives us safe small nuclear generators for private use, but also allows us to fully electrify the industry and public transport. The impact of our outdated 20th-century energy policy on the environment can thus be reduced.
This text is part of the Book Quasifusion, the concept of which was presented at IWAHLM 17 in Bergamo Italy March 26, 2026 (see picture below, our team third row to the right)
