Cold Fusion Research/Chapter 1

The recent interest in cold fusion was stimulated by reports from Utah scientists in March 1989 that fusion had occurred in experiments on the electrolysis of heavy water (D$2$O). Dr. Stanley Pons and Dr. Martin Fleischmann at the University of Utah claimed to measure a production of heat that could only be explained by a nuclear process. Dr. Steven Jones at Brigham Young University did not observe heat but claimed to observe neutron emission that would also indicate a nuclear process. The claims were particularly astounding given the simplicity of the equipment, just a pair of electrodes connected to a battery and immersed in a jar of D$2$O--equipment easily available in many laboratories.

This was not the first time fusion had been claimed to occur in electrolysis experiments, the earliest dating to the late 1920's in experiments that were later retracted, as discussed below. Nonetheless the implications of the Utah claims, if they were correct, and the ready availability of the required equipment, led scientists around the world to attempt to repeat the experiments within hours of the announcement. The Panel estimates that several tens of millions of dollars have been spent in the United States on cold fusion experiments. These experiments are discussed in the following sections.

To understand the initial excitement, and also the profound skepticism, that has surrounded cold fusion experiments, it is helpful to review the nature of the fusion process.

The excitement stems mainly from the claims of heat production by nuclear fusion in these experiments, and the implications of these claims on future energy supply. The attribution of heat production to fusion arises from the presence of deuterium, D, an isotope of hydrogen widely abundant in nature. The known fusion reactions in hydrogen isotopes are shown in Table 1.1.