“Cold Fusion” may not be fusion
Low Energy Nuclear Reaction research continues on the fringes
On 23 March 1989, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann made an astonishing announcement: they claimed to have achieved nuclear fusion — the power of the Sun — in a test tube of water at room temperature.
What followed was a media blitz. In the wake of the Exxon Valdez disaster and Chernobyl, the promise of limitless, safe energy had enormous appeal. But it was not to be. As other scientists failed to replicate their results and more and more questions arose about how they arrived at their findings, the subsequent scandal destroyed any chance for cold fusion research being taken seriously by the scientific community. Likened to perpetual motion machines, cold fusion was too hot to touch.
The theory behind fusion is relatively simple. Fusion is a process by which atomic nuclei, formed of protons and neutrons, overcome their natural electromagnetic repulsion to fuse into higher elements and release energy in the process. The fusion requires that the nuclei be forced close enough together that the strong force overcomes the electromagnetic force.
For fusion to take place as it does inside the Sun, extreme heat and pressure is needed to cause hydrogen fuel to become so energetic that the fuel collides and fuses…
