The impression I get is that the main criticism from the “scientific mainstream” is the problem of the Coulomb barrier. From what I have read it is not felt in the LENR community that a full on paradigm shift in nuclear theory is required but perhaps a reformulation or loophole might provide the answer. Again this seems to me to be more credible.
It is very likely that this is so. At least, when I turned to the Department of Physical and Technical Sciences (Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus) with my project, the main criticism boiled down to the question of the impossibility of overcoming the Coulomb barrier.