Cold fusion

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Cold fusion (also known as Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions (XXXX)) is a set of controversial effects reported in laboratory experiments which are done at near ordinary temperatures and pressures; some researchers say that these effects are caused by nuclear reactions.[1]  This article presents the various arguments offered by each side of the controversy.

Contents

Is cold fusion possible ?

No
 Yes
Nuclear fusion in cold fusion experiments would be contrary to all understanding gained of nuclear reactions.[2]  If the claimed excess heat exceeds that possible by other conventional processes (chemical, mechanical, etc.), one must conclude that an error has been made in measuring the excess heat.[3] Experiments are the basis of scientific inquiries, not theories.  If the observations are contrary to current understanding, then our understanding needs to change.  Cold fusion requires the invention of an entirely new nuclear process.[4]
For fusion to occur, the repulsion force between the two charged nuclei must be overcome. This requires more energy than available via chemical means. The Coulomb barrier can be significantly lowered in metal lattice thanks to electron screening effects.  Also, the mechanism could be other than fusion: nuclei may absorb neutrons, not deuterons; neutrons have no charge, and thus are impervious to the Coulomb barrier.

Do experiments produce anomalous levels of energy ?

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No
 Yes
All possible chemical and solid state sources of  excess heat have not been investigated and eliminated as an explanation.[5]
 The excess power observed in some experiments is beyond that attributable to ordinary chemical or solid state sources.[6] A review of experiments says that more than 10 research groups have occasionally seen 50-200% excess heat for hours to days.[7] 
The short-term excess power is only a few percent of the total external power applied and hence calibration and systematic effects could account for the purported effect.[8]
 The hypothesis that the excess heat effect arises only as a consequence of errors in calorimetry was considered, studied, tested, and ultimately rejected.[9] Observed excess heat events have not diminished in frequency or magnitude, despite having improved their measurement methods.[10]
The lack of reproducibility and the inconsistency of results casts doubt on the experiments. 200 reports of excess heat have been published.[11]  Even a single short but valid cold fusion period is revolutionary.  Any good experiment that fails to find cold fusion can be discounted as merely not working for unknown reasons.[12]  Some earlier failures are now attributed to insufficient loading of Deuteron in Palladium.
"Cold fusion believers" are incompetent or deluded.[13] Fleischmann, a Fellow of the Royal Society, is a world class electrochemist.  While some researchers may lack competence, most have strong credentials.

Is the claimed excess heat explained by nuclear activity ?

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No
 Yes
The level of activity, in particular of neutrons and gamma rays, is well below what would be expected by the current theory of fusion in view of the excess heat claimed to be observed, and thus cannot explain it. The expected level would actually be lethal without protection ("where is the dead student ?" argument) Many experimenters have reported observing X-rays, Gamma rays, Neutrons, Protons, Helium-4, helium-3, tritium and/or "anomalous" isotopic distributions.[14]  The level of activity, while small, is well above background noise and detection sensitivity, and remains unexplained by current theory.  Their control experiments do not show such emissions.
The main products of fusion are Helium-3 and Tritium, not Helium-4.  The detected Helium-4 can be explained by contamination from air.[15] Miles and 5 other teams have shown a linear correlation between excess heat and Helium-4 production.  It is unlikely that contamination from air would give exactly the right He-4 amount in all of these studies.  [16][17] Contamination from air would result in argon as well as helium, and argon is easy to check for.
Tritium reports are fraudulous.[18]
 60 reports of anomalous tritium production have been published.[19]  A 3-professor panel of Texas A&M  found that the accusation of fraud by Bockris' team at Texas A&M University were not founded, because deliberately inserting tritium would give different results.[20]
There is no known mechanism that would release nuclear energy as heat rather than radiation, within the relatively small metal lattice.  The energy involved in the Mossbauer effect is less than that of a Phonon, on the order of 30 keV (50% chance of phonon excitation), compared with 23 MeV in nuclear fusion. The energy release in a nuclear reaction could be converted to heat in a way similar to the Mossbauer effect.  In that effect, the recoil momentum of a nuclear transition is absorbed by the crystal lattice as a whole, rather than by a single atom.
Most physicists consider cold fusion as pathological science.  No articles on cold fusion have been published on the subject in top physics journals, such as Science, Nature, or Physical Review.

There are more than 1,000 papers published in peer-reviewed journals, including Natuurwissenschaften, European Physical Journal.[21]

Nobel laureate Julian Schwinger said : "The pressure for conformity is enormous. I have experienced it in editors' rejection of submitted papers, based on venomous criticism of anonymous referees. The replacement of impartial reviewing by censorship will be the death of science."  In protest, he resigned from APS.[22]

Can it become an energy source ?

No
 Yes
The reported level of generated energy has not increased since the first reports.[23]
 Cold fusion researchers say that the excess heat is generated in tiny spots that are very hot,[24] and if these hot spots can be created at a high rate, there is no reason to believe that the process could not be scaled up to megawatt levels. [25]

Fleischmann & Pons have reported one incident of melting their Palladium cathode, which requires 1800°K.[26] Mizuno has reported the evaporation of 37 liters of water with a palladium cathode of 100 grams.[27]

All cold fusion experiments have produced power in bursts lasting for days or weeks, not for months as would be needed for many commercial applications. More funding is required to prevent cathodes from deteriorating, cracking, or melting during the experiments.  For comparison, hot nuclear fusion projects have only produced power for very short period, despite several billions dollars of expenses.
Commercial applications of cold fusion have been promised many times, but never delivered.[28] For example, in 1995, Clean Energy Technology, Inc (CETI) demonstrated a 1-kilowatt cold fusion reactor at the Power-Gen '95 Americas power industry trade show in Anaheim, CA. They obtained several patents from the USPTO. No cold fusion reactor has been commercialized by CETI or the patent holders. If cold fusion was funded like hot fusion, it could become an energy source within 5 to 10 years.[29] Commercial applications of hot fusion have always been 30 years away; yet it is heavily funded. Unlike hot fusion, cold fusion reactors would be small and would not emit harmful radiation.

References

  1. ↑ See cold fusion on Wikipedia
  2. ↑ U.S. Department of Energy (1989), "A Report of the Energy Research Advisory Board to the United States Department of Energy", Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy, retrieved on 25 May 2008
  3. ↑ Huizenga, J.R., "Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century". second ed. 1993, New York: Oxford University Press.
  4. ↑ U.S. Department of Energy (1989), "A Report of the Energy Research Advisory Board to the United States Department of Energy", Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy, retrieved on 25 May 2008
  5. ↑ U.S. Department of Energy (2004) (PDF), "Report of the Review of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions", Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy
  6. ↑ U.S. Department of Energy (2004) (PDF), "Report of the Review of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions", Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy
  7. ↑ Hubler, G. K. (5 August 2007), "Anomalous Effects in Hydrogen-Charged Palladium - A Review", Surface and Coatings Technology 201 (19-20): 8568–8573; doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2006.03.062, from SMMIB 2005, 14th International Conference on Surface Modification of Materials by Ion Beams
  8. ↑ U.S. Department of Energy (2004) (PDF), "Report of the Review of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions", Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy
  9. ↑ Hagelstein, Peter; Michael, McKubre; Nagel, David; Chubb, Talbot; Hekman, Randall (2004), "New Physical Effects in Metal Deuterides", Washington: US Department of Energy
  10. ↑ Hubler, G. K. (5 August 2007), "Anomalous Effects in Hydrogen-Charged Palladium - A Review", Surface and Coatings Technology 201 (19-20): 8568–8573; doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2006.03.062, from SMMIB 2005, 14th International Conference on Surface Modification of Materials by Ion Beams
  11. ↑ Storms, Edmund (2007), Science of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction: A Comprehensive Compilation of Evidence and Explanations, Singapore: World Scientific, ISBN 9-8127062-0-8
  12. ↑ U.S. Department of Energy (1989), "A Report of the Energy Research Advisory Board to the United States Department of Energy", Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy, retrieved on 25 May 2008
  13. ↑ Steven Koonin, lecture delivered at A.P.S. Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, May 1989, quoted in Mallove E., "Cold Fusion" (1994): p 55.
  14. ↑ Storms, Edmund (2007), "Science of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction: A Comprehensive Compilation of Evidence and Explanations", Singapore: World Scientific, ISBN 9-8127062-0-8
  15. ↑ Clarke, W. Brian (2003), "Production of 4He in D2-loaded palladium-carbon catalyst II", Fusion science and technology 43 (2): 250–255
  16. ↑ Miles, Melvin H.; Hollins, R. A.; Bush, Ben F.; Logowski, J. J.; Miles, R. E. (1993), "Correlation of excess power and helium production during D2O and H20 electrolysis using Palladium cathodes", Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry 346 (1-2): 99–117, doi:10.1016/0022-0728(93)85006-3
  17. ↑ Storms, E., Cold Fusion for Dummies 2006, XXXX-CANR.org.
  18. ↑ Taubes, Gary (1990), "Cold fusion conundrum at Texas A&M", Science (15 June 1990): 1299
  19. ↑ Storms, Edmund (2007), Science of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction: A Comprehensive Compilation of Evidence and Explanations, Singapore: World Scientific, ISBN 9-8127062-0-8
  20. ↑ Packham, Richard A. (1989), "Production of tritium from D2O electrolysis at a palladium cathode", Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry 270: 451, doi:10.1016/0022-0728(89)85059-4
  21. ↑ See Dieter Britz' bibliography.
  22. ↑ Schwinger, Julian (1991), "Cold fusion—Does it have a future?", in Suzuki, Masuo; Kubo, Ryogo, Evolutionary Trends in the Physical Sciences: Proceedings of the Yoshio Nishina Centennial Symposium, Tokyo, Japan, December 5-7, 1990, Springer Proceedings in Physics, vol. 57, Berlin: Springer Verlag, pp. 171–175, ISBN 3-540-54568-9.-- Cited by Storms, Edmund (2007), "Science of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction: A Comprehensive Compilation of Evidence and Explanations", Singapore: World Scientific, ISBN 9-8127062-0-8
  23. ↑ U.S. Department of Energy (2004), "Report of the Review of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions", Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy
  24. ↑ S Szpak, P.A. Mosier-Boss, C. Young, and F.E. Gordon, “Evidence of Nuclear Reactions in the Pd Lattice”, Naturwissenschaften, 92, 394 (2005).
  25. ↑ Edmund Storms, "Only a Fool Would Believe That Cold Fusion Will Not Become an Important Energy Source", New Energy Times #17, July 10,2006
  26. ↑ Fleischmann, M., S. Pons, and M. Hawkins, Electrochemically induced nuclear fusion of deuterium. J. Electroanal. Chem., 1989. 261: p. 301 and errata in Vol. 263.
  27. ↑ T. Mizuno (1998), "Nuclear Transmutation: The Reality of Cold Fusion", Infinite Energy Press, Concord, New Hampshire, U.S.A.
  28. ↑ Morrison D.R.O., "Status of cold fusion and report on 8th international conference on cold fusion", sci.physics.fusion, 11 July 2000
  29. ↑ Nagel, David, "Questions and Answers About Lattice-Enabled Nuclear Reactions", Infinite Energy, Issue 84, March/April 2009

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