The Issue
For the Urgent Investigation and Validation of Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR)
We gather in Bergamo at a defining moment of rising global tension - marked by severe energy insecurity, environmental strain, and escalating geopolitical risk. The stability and prosperity of the modern world remain tightly bound to energy systems that are costly, polluting, volatile, and unequally distributed.
Immense resources have been devoted to conventional fusion and other advanced energy technologies. Yet low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR), despite nearly four decades of
promising experimental observations, have never been subjected to a
focused, well-funded, and definitive international program of
validation.
This imbalance leaves a transformative opportunity insufficiently explored. It demands an immediate, rigorous, and coordinated effort to determine LENR's reality and practical potential.
This can represent a critical gap in civilization's energy portfolio.
This is not a question of belief. It is a question of scientific
resolution. Two questions must be answered with clarity and urgency:
1) Are the reported LENR observations valid and reproducible?
2) If so, can the phenomenon be engineered into a practical, scalable, and safe energy source?
The potential implications are extraordinary. A positive answer could rapidly
unlock a fundamentally new energy paradigm - abundant, low-cost, and
carbon-free - transforming global economics and mitigating key drivers
of conflict.
As Professor Huw Price observes, missing a new source of carbon-free
energy would be catastrophic; it is therefore "prudent to investigate
even low-probability options." Today, the risk of inaction far exceeds
the risk of investigation.
History offers a parallel lesson. As emphasized by Yuval Noah Harari,
humanity's defining advantage is its ability to organize large-scale
cooperation around ambitious goals. Our greatest scientific and
industrial challenges - from splitting the atom to flying to the moon -
have been defined by breathtaking leaps of imagination. We must now apply that same collective will to the LENR challenge.
We therefore call for the immediate creation of an
international, transparent, and collaborative $1 billion LENR validation
and development program with the clear mandate to answer these two
questions authoritatively within three years.
This program should be funded by a consortium of the governments of
the leading global economies and participating nations, supported by
national laboratories, academia, private industry, and major
philanthropic institutions. Funding should be committed quickly and
placed under a single program authority to ensure speed, focus, and
accountability.
This investment is a fraction of the costs imposed by modern conflict and its resulting economic shocks. For comparison:
• $1 billion is a negligible fraction of the hundreds of billions
of dollars, or more, in added burdens placed on global households and
businesses due to war-driven energy and commodity price spikes.
• A one-time $1 billion investment that might usher in a new era of
low-cost, clean, unprecedented energy abundance represents only
1/10,000 of the world's annual $10 trillion of energy consumption.
• For any likelihood between 1% and 100% that LENR can become a
viable global energy source, no serious decision model fails to justify
this investment. The cost of discovery is negligible relative to the
cost of continued dependence on volatile, carbon-intensive, and geopolitically constrained energy systems.
The time has come to move LENR from the fringes of scientific debate to a position as a candidate for inclusion within the core of global energy planning.
Adopted in Bergamo, Italy
March 26, 2026
*Group image above is of some of the tireless and dedicated
scientists, experimentalists, researchers and advocates for LENR (Low
Energy Nuclear Reactions) gathered at ICCF-21 (The International
Conference of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science) held at the Lory Student
Center of the Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. )
Source:
https://www.change.org/p/the-bergamo-statement
