One of the leading theoreticians in the field of LENR is presently within NAv6. His working experience with the other theoreticians and with many of the experimentalists provide a basis for the theoretical effort required to bring this energy source into acceptability among the academic skeptics and thereby open the gates of industry and government funding presently denied the field. Plans are underway to combine this capability with a working system in a local laboratory where a 'critical mass' of creativity and knowledge can produce a breakthrough in both the modeling and experimental results. Much of the financing for this effort will be provided by entrepreneurs seeking to 'corner' experts in the field and get an edge on the upcoming market. Malaysia would be an ideal location for manufacturing the commercial product of this effort.

As a sign that the time is right for this development, the experimental effort is spreading beyond the few university and government labs where individuals have been working on their own time and after their retirements for many years. Small amounts have been set aside by the US congress as a sign that some politicians recognize that the potential gain from this development is so monumental that even the major industries that would be hurt by a significant new source of energy must be considered of secondary importance. A recent patent application by a NASA Laboratory (Patent application number: 20110255645) will challenge the 2 decade policy of automatic rejection of patent applications in the field.

Sub-areas: Theoretical Modeling of interactions and processes
This work is an extension of a decade-long development to determine the means of overcoming the Coulomb barrier between two positively-charged nuclei. It also seeks to understand mechanisms that allow nuclear reactions without the normal consequences of energetic radiation. Transmutation of elements, a consequence of some of these reactions, could be as important in the production of rare-earth elements as it is in the production of heat energy.

Sub-areas: Extensions to Atomic and Nuclear Physics
In the process of exploring the implications of the observed low-energy nuclear reactions, several concepts in physics that have been previously ignored are found to be important. The ability of electrons to move to lower atomic orbitals without benefit of photon emission is one possible explanation of the means for low-energy hydrogen nuclei to get much closer together than previously thought. A deep atomic-electron orbital is predicted by the Dirac equation to be present in binary nuclei. This orbital has not been observed or recognized; therefore, it has not been accepted in the past. Evidence is now mounting for its existence and importance. A problem that has here-to-for been neglected is the nature of the Coulomb potential. This leads to new understanding of nuclear physics and relativity.