COLD FUSION

Cold Fusion

Cold Fusion

Thesis Statement

Although the scientific community has given cold fusion the cold shoulder of skepticism, further research may prove it as an inexhaustible resource of energy.

What is an inexhaustible resource?

Renewable energy can offer inexhaustible power generated by the natural processes of wind, sun, water, plant growth, and heat from the earth being converted into power, steam, and heat. Renewable resources are natural resource that can be used to benefit people and can then be replaced for other people to enjoy, and these resources do not run out

What is cold fusion and why would it be so valuable

Cold fusion refers to nuclear fusion of atoms at conditions close to room temperature, in contrast to the conditions of well-understood fusion reactions such as those inside stars and high energy experiments. Interest in the field was dramatically increased on March 23, 1989 when Martin Fleischmann, then one of the world's leading electro-chemists, and Stanley Pons reported that they had produced fusion in a tabletop experiment involving electrolysis of heavy water on a palladium (Pd) electrode. They reported anomalous heat production ("excess heat") of a magnitude they asserted would defy explanation except in terms of nuclear processes. They further reported measuring small amounts of nuclear reaction byproducts, including neutrons and tritium. These reports raised hopes of a cheap and abundant source of energy.

Enthusiasm turned to skepticism as replication failures were weighed in view of several reasons cold fusion is not likely to occur, the discovery of possible sources of experimental error, and finally the discovery that Fleischmann and Pons had not actually detected nuclear reaction byproducts. By late 1989, most scientists considered cold fusion claims dead, and cold fusion subsequently gained a reputation as pathological science. However, some researchers continue to investigate cold fusion, and some have reported positive results at mainstream conferences and in peer-reviewed journals. Cold fusion research sometimes is referred to as low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) studies or condensed matter nuclear science, in order to avoid negative connotations.

The mainstream and popular scientific press presented this as a setback for cold fusion researchers, with headlines such as "cold fusion gets chilly encore", but cold fusion researchers placed a "rosier spin" on the report, noting that it also recommended specific areas where research could resolve the controversies in the field. In 2005, Physics Today reported that new reports of excess heat and other cold fusion effects were still no more convincing than 15 years previous.

Thirteen papers were presented at the "Cold Fusion" session of the March 2006 American Physical Society (APS) meeting in Baltimore. In 2007, the American Chemical Society's (ACS) held an "invited symposium" on cold fusion and low-energy nuclear reactions while explaining that this does not show a softening of skepticism. An ACS program chair said that "with the world facing an energy crisis, it is worth exploring all possibilities."

Why has the scientific community dismissed cold fusion as a myth?

The fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium at room temperature. In 1989 two scientists announced that they had produced cold ...