436-437 COLD FUSION: POSSIBILITY OF LIMITLESS ENERGY

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by Michael White

Cold fusion, one of those ideas consigned to the scientific nether world, may yet make a comeback. Many scientists still associate it with such fancies as perpetual-motion machines and the elixir of life, but its supporters and sceptics are again taking up antagonistic positions.

If results announced by Japanese scientists are to be believed, fusion may, after all, be possible at room temperature and with equipment little more sophisticated than a test tube and a few metal plates.

A team headed by Eichi Yamaguchi at the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone basic Research laboratory in Tokyo claims it has achieved nuclear fusion in the laboratory, successfully repeating its experiments five times and achieving 'perfect results' with 100 percent accuracy each time.

If this is correct, and a way can be found to harness the energy produced, we will be one step closer to the dream of almost limitless extremely cheap energy.

Cold fusion made global headlines in March 1989 when two men, Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, astonished fellow scientists with the claim that they had achieved the Holy Grail of practical science fusion in a test tube. The reason for the excitement was that nuclear fusion, the power source of stars, is thought to be possible only at very high temperatures in the order of hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius.

Nuclear fusion is the process by which the atoms of a heavy form of hydrogen called deuterium are forced together to form helium atoms. At the same time a large amount of energy is released.

Fusion is the opposite process to fission, the atomic chain reaction mechanism used in atomic power stations. Fission is the process whereby large, unstable atoms are broken down into smaller units, with release of energy.

Fusion is much more difficult to achieve and requires extreme conditions to initiate. The extraordinary thing about Fleischmann's and Pons's work was the claim that they had achieved nuclear fusion at near room temperature.

The initial excitement soon turned to frustration and disappointment. No other scientific group in the world could reproduce their results or obtain greater energy than was put in to initiate the process.

Fleishmann and Pons were largely discredited and vicious rumours as to their scientific integrity began to circulate.

Gradually the whole fiasco started to stink of hurried work. But the concept has retained an aura of mystery and excitement in Japan. Several rival teams have been established to investigate it, including a research establishment based in southern France and headed by none other than Fleischmann.

Meanwhile, Yamaguchi's team is the first to announce its results and may yet steal Fleischmann's thunder.
In Fleischmann's and Pons's 1989 version, sub-atomic particles called neutrons were reportedly observed. Yamaguchi has not detected neutrons and has suggested that is taking place.

Fleischmann and Pons also claimed to have produced substantial amounts of energy from a small laboratory device. Yamaguchi is more modest.

This article was sent to us anonymously, but the source was not indicated.