Cold Fusion -- The Sun in a bottle

Alternative Science   - Richard Milton
No other scientific endeavour has consumed so much talent, so much cash and so many years of sustained effort as the race to harness the power that makes the Sun shine. Billions of pounds, (and dollars, roubles and yen), more than four decades of research and the careers of thousands of physicists have been expended on the search for a nuclear reactor that will generate limitless power from the fusion of hydrogen atoms. There are grey-haired professors with lined faces still poring intently over the equations they first looked at eagerly with bright young eyes in the 1940s and 1950s. They will go into retirement with their dreams of cheap, safe power from fusion still years in the future. For the obstacles in their paths are as formidable now as ever.

Fusion is the process taking place in the Sun's core where, at temperatures of millions of degrees, hydrogen atoms are compressed together by elemental forces to form helium and a massive outpouring of energy in the thermonuclear reaction of the hydrogen bomb.  It is not difficult, then, to imagine how people who have invested their talent and their lives in the quest to tame such forces are likely to react when told that fusion is possible at room temperature, and in a jam jar.

The scientific world was astounded when, in March 1989, Professor Martin Fleischmann of Southampton University and his former student, Professor Stanley Pons of the University of Utah, held a press conference at which they jointly announced the discovery of 'cold fusion' -- the production of usable amounts of energy by what seemed to be a nuclear process occurring in a jar of water at room temperature.

Fleischmann and Pons told an incredulous press conference that they had passed an electric current through a pair of electrodes made of precious metals -- one platinum, the other palladium -- immersed in a glass jar of heavy water in which was dissolved some lithium salts. This very simple set-up was claimed to produce heat energy between four and ten times greater than the electrical energy they were putting in. No purely chemical reaction could produce a result of such magnitude so, said the scientists, it must be nuclear fusion.

 
The return of nuclear fusion?
Prospect Magazine  June 23, 2006 Fred Pearce

"Fusion research got going in the 1950s. The first fusion gypsies are approaching retirement. But scientific progress has been slow and funding sporadic. They have yet to see a watt of power delivered to any grid anywhere. But earlier this year, after more than a decade in the doldrums, the gypsies had their biggest boost, when governments representing most of the world's population decided to invest $10bn in trying to make the dream come true.   This summer, the fusion gypsies are reassembling in the wooded hills of Provence in southern France, where a new machine is to be built.  ....

The moment seems right. As oil prices soar, as concern grows about global warming, and as politicians balance the potential of conventional nuclear power and renewables, there is a growing need for a new source of electricity that combines the capacity of a nuclear power plant with the cleanness and safety of a wind farm. Fusion could, eventually, be the answer. Even fusion's most ardent supporters admit it will be several decades before the technology becomes commercial. But if the physics comes to fruition, it could be very big—just as the oil runs out and climate change accelerates.

In May, the governments of the EU, the US, China, India, Japan, Russia and Korea initialled a treaty to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the world's largest fusion machine, in a forest at Cadarache in Provence. They will sign formally in November. Half of the money will come from the EU. ITER will take a decade to build and will then run for two further decades, performing tens of thousands of fusion experiments. At the end of that time, say its backers, the world will know once and for all if nuclear fusion has a viable future. Technically viable, that is. The economics will come later."

COLD FUSION UPDATES FROM INFINITE ENERGY MAGAZINE
 

Infinite Energy Articles (pdf)

An Afternoon to Remember: Cold Fusion Session of APS Meeting (March 16, 2006) - Robert W. Bass

Exposing the "Real Embarrassments" of Cold Fusion - Scott Chubb 

Travel Report for the 12th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (ICCF12)

The 2005 MIT Cold Fusion Colloquium, Honoring Eugene Mallove - Scott Chubb 

Charge Clusters: The work of Ken Shoulders - William Zebuhr 
 

AMERICAN PAPERS and WEB INFO ON COLD FUSION

[A partial introduction] 

Introduction to Cold Fusion

Further Introduction including Engineering and the Optimal Operating Point

Cold Fusion Science - Introduction to Material science 

Public Open-House Cold Fusion Demonstration at MIT and ICCF10

Theoretical physics paper on cold fusion - MIT Research Laboratory for Electronics  2003 (pdf)

Production of helium in cold fusion - SRI 2000 (pdf) 

U.S. Navy Technical Report  2002 - A Decade of [Cold Fusion] Research at US Navy Laboratories (pdf) 

Cold Fusion Physics and Philosophy - Journal of Accountability in Research, 2000 (pdf)

THE REAL DEAL:  Cold Fusion: A Heated History 

September 30, 2005; repeated February 24, 2006
Bruce Gellerman continues his investigation into the future of fusion with a look at the latest research in the field of cold fusion, the science of creating a nuclear reaction at room temperature. Most scientists call sustained cold fusion reactions impossible, but others say their experiments are producing energy. 
Transcript     "(Cold fusion) offers a chance to have the United States make the Kyoto agreement moot, and make greenhouse warming moot." 

MP3 [download and listen to the radio show on the MIT 2005 CF Colloquium and Cold Fusion 
Bruce Gellerman:  "But reports of the death of cold fusion were premature. The field was kept alive by a small community of researchers who meet every 18 months or so. Critics call them a cult, but these true believers are sustained by laboratory results they say prove cold fusion can produce unlimited, safe, non-polluting energy.  ..... History can offer solace, of sorts, for cold fusion advocates. In 1905, Albert Einstein came up with his revolutionary theory e=mc2, it laid the basis for nuclear energy. But it wasn't until 27 years later, in 1932, that scientists in the lab finally confirmed his theory. By that measure, cold fusion still has time before it's fully recognized, or finally rejected, by the ultimate arbiter in these matters: the scientific method."

Happy Birthday, America

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. ....

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levey war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

[The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America]

President Ronald Reagan:
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. 
We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. 
It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, 
or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children
and our children's children what it was once like in the United States 
where men were free."

Purdue's review panel completes review of Taleyarkhan

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ­ A Purdue University examination committee reviewing issues
concerning research on the use of sound waves to create nuclear fusion reactions has completed its work.

"The committee has submitted a report, and I will take appropriate action after studying the recommendations," said Charles O. Rutledge, vice president for research, who appointed the committee in March. 

Rutledge appointed the examination committee after the British research journal Nature reported on its Web site that some researchers had raised questions about the research of Rusi Taleyarkhan, a Purdue professor of nuclear engineering.

{Ed. These were competitors and a graduate student}

Since joining the Purdue faculty in 2004 and previously at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Taleyarkhan has published research findings in several refereed journals showing evidence that "sonofusion" generates nuclear reactions by creating tiny bubbles that implode with tremendous force. Experimental nuclear fusion reactors have historically required large, multibillion-dollar machines, but sonofusion devices might be built for a fraction of the cost and theoretically could be an unlimited source of clean energy.

Taleyarkhan first reported observing the bubble fusion effect in March 2002 in the journal Science. In addition to its potential as a new source of clean energy, Taleyarkhan and other researchers believe sonofusion could be used in a wide range of applications from homeland security to the study of neutron stars and black holes.

June 21, 2006  was the Birthday of the ratification of the US Constitution, which is STILL ignored by the US Patent Office in its "War on America" as a group within continues to destroy and muzzle all Yankee Ingenuity in the fields of cold fusion, alternative energy, and even room temperature superconductivity 
    June 21, 1788 - U.S. Constitution ratified 
New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land. By 1786, defects in the post-Revolutionary War Articles of Confederation were apparent, such as the lack of central authority over foreign and domestic commerce. Congress endorsed a plan to draft a new constitution, and on May 25, 1787, the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. On September 17, 1787, after three months of debate moderated by convention president George Washington, the new U.S. constitution, which created a strong federal government with an intricate system of checks and balances, was signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the convention. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states. Beginning on December 7, five states--Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut--ratified it in quick succession. .... The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. ...

Article 1 The Congress shall have power .... To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;"   How to help

   "Observation Of Surface Distribution Of Products By X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry During D2 Gas Permeation Through Pd Complexes",
Iwamura, Y., et alia, The 12th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. 2005. Yokohama, Japan. 

Technical Manuscripts and Updates Cold Fusion

Yoshiaki Arata (Osaka University) -  “Double-Structure” cold fusion cell 
Japan Academy of Science B73, 62-7 (1997), B73, 1-6 (1997)  Updated pdf paper

George Miley et al.  - "Use of Combined NAA and SIMS Analyses for Impurity Level Isotope Detection"
Journal of Radiological and Nuclear Chemistry, 263 (3), 691-696 (2005)  Updated pdf paper

Xing Zhong Li   "A Chinese View on Summary of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science" Journal of Fusion Energy  23(3), 217-21 (2004)  Updated pdf paper

---

"The neglect of cold fusion is one of the biggest scandals in the history of science."

-Sir Arthur C. Clarke

An All-Electric Car That Accelerates Faster Than a Ferrari   - Technology Review 

SAN CARLOS, Calif. (AP) -- ... Silicon Valley thinks it can do what Detroit could not -- create a thriving business selling electric cars. In the 1990s, General Motors and other automakers spent billions to develop battery-powered vehicles, but they flopped because most couldn't travel more than 100 miles before having to recharge. ... At least three Silicon Valley startups -- Tesla Motors of San Carlos, Wrightspeed Inc. of Woodside and battery maker Li-on Cells of Menlo Park -- are among a small cadre of companies nationwide developing electric cars or components.
.... Tesla and Wrightspeed are using lithium-ion batteries that are more powerful, lighter and efficient than the lead acid batteries used in early electric cars or the nickel metal hydride batteries used in today's hybrids.
... In Tesla's workshop about 20 miles south of San Francisco, Eberhard and Tarpenning offered a glimpse of their first model -- a sleek two-seater called the Roadster that resembles a Lotus Elise -- but would not allow photographs. ... To build the Roadster, Tesla engineers designed a sophisticated battery system with more than 8,000 lithium-ion cells and a network of computers to control them, Eberhard said. They also built an electric motor that is more than twice as powerful as earlier electric vehicles. The Roadster will be able to drive about 250 miles on a single three-hour charge, drive up to 135 miles per hour and accelerate from zero to 60 in four seconds, Eberhard said. It will cost between $85,000 and $120,000.

''The car business had more challenges than we expected,'' Tarpenning said.  Ian Wright, who left Tesla to start Wrightspeed last year, is aiming at the same $3 billion market for high-performance sports cars. The New Zealand-born electrical engineer spent nine months retooling an Ariel Atom race car to run on a lithium-ion battery -- a prototype of the car he hopes to eventually sell for about $120,000.

... With no doors, roof or windshield, a drive in Wrightspeed's X1 feels like a roller coaster ride and can leave passengers wind-beaten and queasy. It accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 3 seconds, making it one of the world's fastest production cars. Last year, Wright's X1 beat a Porsche and Ferrari in separate races.

 

  Strong Growth in World Energy Demand is Projected Through 2030 - Cattle Network 

"Worldwide marketed energy consumption is projected to grow by 71 percent between 2003 and 2030 ... Petroleum consumption is still expected to grow strongly, however, reaching 118 million barrels per day in 2030. The United States, China, and India together account for 51 percent of the projected growth in world oil use.  Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are expected to increase their supply of oil by 14.6 million barrels per day between 2003 and 2030. Higher oil prices contribute to a substantial increase in projected non-OPEC supply, which rises by 23.7 million barrels per day, including 8.1million barrels per day of unconventional production, over the same period. World unconventional production (including oil sands, bitumen, biofuels, coal-to-liquids, and gas-to-liquids) increases by 9.7 million barrels per day between 2003 and 2030, representing 25 percent of the total world liquids supply increase.
... Rising fossil fuel prices also allow renewable energy sources to compete more effectively in the electric power sector. Consumption of hydroelectricity and other grid-connected renewable energy sources expands by 2.4 percent per year. 

+ Higher fossil fuel prices and concerns about security of energy supplies are expected to improve prospects for nuclear power capacity over the projection period, and many countries are expected to build new nuclear power plants. World nuclear capacity is projected to rise from 361 gigawatts in 2003 to 438 gigawatts in 2030, with significant declines in capacity projected only for Europe, where several countries have either plans or mandates to phase out nuclear power, or where old reactors are expected to be retired and not replaced.
.....  energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are projected to rise from 25.0 billion metric tons in 2003 to 33.7 billion metric tons in 2015 and 43.7 billion metric tons in 2030. Much of the projected increase in emissions is expected to occur in the non-OECD regions of the world, accompanying large increases fossil fuel use.."
 

 
Super Battery Victor Limjoco

As our portable devices get more high-tech, the batteries that power them can seem to lag behind. But Joel Schindall and his team at M.I.T. plan to make long charge times and expensive replacements a thing of the past--by improving on technology from the past. .. But capacitors contain energy as an electric field of charged particles created by two metal electrodes. Capacitors charge faster and last longer than normal batteries. The problem is that storage capacity is proportional to the surface area of the battery's electrodes, so even today's most powerful capacitors hold 25 times less energy than similarly sized standard chemical batteries.
The researchers solved this by covering the electrodes with millions of tiny filaments called nanotubes. Each nanotube is 30,000 times thinner than a human hair. Similar to how a thick, fuzzy bath towel soaks up more water than a thin, flat bed sheet, the nanotube filaments on increase the surface area of the electrodes and allow the capacitor to store more energy. Schindall says this combines the strength of today's batteries with the longevity and speed of capacitors.

Schindall thinks hybrid cars would be a particularly popular application for these batteries, especially because current hybrid batteries are expensive to replace.  Schindall also sees the ecological benefit to these reinvented capacitors. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 3 billion industrial and household batteries were sold in the United States in 1998. When these batteries are disposed, toxic chemicals like cadmium can seep into the ground

 
    COLD FUSION UPDATE 
                 FROM RHODES SCHOLAR DR. ROBERT BASS:

An Afternoon to Remember: Cold Fusion Session of APS Meeting (March 16, 2006) - Robert W. Bass
courtesy of Infinite Energy

"Everyone aware of the potential epochal importance of condensed matter nuclear science (CMNS) should be grateful to Scott Chubb for the arduous but thankless annual task, for the past six years, of keeping the subject alive at meetings of the American Physical Society (APS). (This year’s session took place in Baltimore, Maryland on March 16, from 2:30 to 5:06 p.m.)  ..... the 13 presenters or groups of presenters this year included a gratifyingly high percentage of the most stalwart contributors to this emerging field of revolutionary science.

 Atomic Motor - 
Cold Fusion, Energy & Nanotech in a Networked World

Shining Light on Technology News & Media From One  Nuclear Engineer's Perspective
 

 
  Raiders Of The Lost Dimension   Los Alamos NM - Spacemart 

A team of scientists working at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory's Pulsed Field Facility at Los Alamos has uncovered an intriguing phenomenon while studying magnetic waves in barium copper silicate, a 2,500-year-old pigment known as Han purple. The researchers discovered that when they exposed newly grown crystals of the pigment to very high magnetic fields at very low temperatures, it entered a rarely observed state of matter. At the threshold of that matter state--called the quantum critical point-the waves actually lose a dimension. That is, the magnetic waves go from a three-dimensional to a two-dimensional pattern. ... they discovered that at high magnetic fields (above 23 Tesla) and at temperatures between 1 and 3 degrees Kelvin (or roughly minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit), the magnetic waves in Han purple crystals "exist" in a unique state of matter called a Bose Einstein condensate (BEC).  In the BEC state, magnetic waves propagate simultaneously in all of three directions (up-down, forward-backward and left-right). At the quantum critical point, however, the waves stop propagating in the up-down dimension, causing the magnetic ripples to exist in only two dimensions, much the same way as ripples are confined to the surface of a pond. ..... 
Microscopic image of Han Purple by Marcelo Jaime of MST-NHMFL

In the higher temperatures of the BEC state, the individual waves, which are associated with magnetism from pairs of copper atoms in the Han Purple pigment, lose their identities and condense into one giant wave of undulating magnetism. As the temperature is lowered, this magnetic wave becomes more sensitive to the vertical arrangement of individual copper layers in the pigment -which are shifted relative to each other- in a phenomenon called "geometrical frustration." 

"[W]hen the Paris Exhibition closes electric light will close with it and no more be heard of."     - Erasmus Wilson (1878) Professor at Oxford University 

"This `telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a practical form of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."     - Western Union internal memo, 1878 

"Radio has no future."    - Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), British mathematician and physicist, ca. 1897. 

"Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia." - Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1793-1859), Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at University College, London. 

It'll Never Work!

COLD FUSION TIMES - INFORMATION FOR SKEPTICS

  "... after a few more flashes in the pan, we shall hear very little more of Edison or his electric lamp. Every claim he makes has been tested and proved impracticable." 
          [New York Times, January 16, 1880] 

          "Professor Goddard ... does not know the relation of action to reaction ... he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in our high schools" 
          [New York Times, January 13, 1920] 

Physicists create great balls of fire
"Ball lightning – the mysterious slow-moving spheres of light occasionally seen during thunderstorms – has been created in the lab. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and the Humboldt University in Berlin have used underwater electrical discharges to generate luminous plasma clouds resembling ball lightning that last for nearly half a second and are up to 20 centimetres across. They hope that these artificial entities will help them understand the bizarre phenomenon and perhaps even provide insights into the hot plasmas needed for fusion power plants..... Most accounts describe a hovering, glowing, ball-like object up to 40 centimetres across, ranging in colour from red to yellow to blue and lasting for several seconds or in rare cases even minutes. ....“It is likely that lightning flashes and water interact to produce ball lightning,” says Fussmann. “We therefore use a short, high-voltage discharge of 5000 volts to vaporise some of the water in a glass tank and create the plasma ball.” The tank contains two electrodes, one of which is insulated from the surrounding water by a clay tube. The high voltage causes enormous currents of up to 60 amps – over 200 times those needed to cause death – to flow through the water for a fraction of a second. These enter the clay tube, causing the water there to evaporate and a luminous plasma ball - consisting of ionised water molecules - to rise from the surface.
.... Despite the bright glow, the balls also appear to be rather cold, much like neon lights. A sheet of paper placed above them is lifted but does not catch fire.

   A Sponge's Guide to Nano-Assembly   Technology Review -  Kevin Bullis

One of the ongoing goals of nanotechnology is to easily and inexpensively create high-performance materials structured at the nanoscale. And one of the most promising strategies is to attempt to mimic nature's remarkable ability to self-assemble complex shapes with nanoscale precision. Now researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), using clues gleaned from marine sponges, have developed a method of synthesizing semiconducting materials with useful structures and novel electronic properties. The first applications could be ways to make materials for more powerful batteries and highly efficient solar cells at a lower price. .... Daniel Morse, professor of molecular genetics and biochemistry at UCSB, who led the project. The method works with a wide variety of materials. So far, he says, the group has made "30 different kinds of oxides, hydroxides, and phosphates."  Morse and his colleagues began their research by studying the methods used by marine sponges to make intricate glass skeletons called spicules (see illustration). One type of sponge produces a cylinder that looks as if it were made of woven glass fibers, although it isn't woven at all, but assembled molecule by molecule to make the structure.  In particular, the researchers studied a type of sponge that makes tiny needles of glass. They found that the genes responsible for the glass structures encode for enzymes that serve as both a physical template for the structure and a catalyst for assembling molecular precursors into the desired material.

"At first the crystals form at the [surface], but with time they begin to project down into the solution like stalactites growing down from the roof of a cave," Morse says. "What you end up with is a nanostructured thin film of semiconductor with very high surface area because of all the projecting thin plates or needles that project down into the solution."  .... Although the current process works only for thin films, further understanding of the catalysis and templating methods of sponges could one day make it possible to fabricate complex machine parts by piecing together molecules. 

    (Hot) Fusion reactor work gets go-ahead

BBC - Seven international parties involved in an experimental nuclear fusion reactor project have initialled a 10bn-euro (£6.8bn) agreement on the plan. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) will be the most expensive joint scientific project after the International Space Station.  ... The seven-party consortium, which includes the European Union, the US, Japan, China, Russia and others, agreed last year to build Iter in Cadarache, in the southern French region of Provence.
It will produce the first sustained fusion reactions
[Ed: after cold fusion achieved it 17 years earlier]

The EU is to foot about 50% of the cost to build the experimental reactor.  .... If all goes well with the experimental reactor, officials hope to set up a demonstration power plant at Cadarache by 2040.
[Ed: 51 years after cold fusion was successfully achieved, then cover-ed up!]

To use controlled fusion reactions on Earth as an energy source, it is necessary to heat a gas to temperatures exceeding 100 million Celsius - many times hotter than the centre of the Sun.  The technical requirements to do this, which scientists have spent decades developing, are immense; but the rewards, if Iter can be made to work successfully, are extremely attractive. One kilogram of fusion fuel would produce the same amount of energy as 10,000,000kg of fossil fuel.  Fusion does produce radioactive waste but not the volumes of long-term high-level radiotoxic materials that have so burdened nuclear fission.
[Ed: Cold fusion has NO radioactive waste, but makes helium!]

Officials project that 10-20% of the world's energy could come from fusion by the end of the century. 
However, environmental groups have criticised the project, saying there was no guarantee that the billions of euros would result in a commercially viable energy source. "Investment in energy efficiency and renewables is the only reliable way to guarantee energy security," said Silvia Hermann, from Friends of the Earth Europe. "Giving billions of euros to a single nuclear project that is so far from reality is ill judged and irresponsible."
The European Commission said the investment costs were justified, explaining that the technology used in fusion reactor plants would be "inherently safe, with no possibility of meltdown, or runaway reactions."

INFINITE ENERGY MAGAZINE

---

INTEGRITY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

     NEWS AND ARCHIVES
Future Energy Program
Newsletter

---

American Antigravity

 

  COLD FUSION papers from India
BARC Studies In Cold Fusion, BARC Report 1500

ELECTROLYTIC EXPERIMENTS
 Cold Fusion Experiments Using a Commercial Pd-Ni Electrolyser - Krishnan,  Iyengar et alia 

 Preliminary Results of Cold Fusion Studies Using a Five Module High Current Electrolytic Cell - . Nayar,  et alia 

Observation of Cold Fusion in a Ti-SS Electrolytic Cell - Krishnan et alia 

 Tritium Generation during Electrolysis Experiment - Radhakrishnan,Sundaresan,  et alia 

 Tritium Analysis of Samples Obtained from Various Electrolysis Experiments at BARC -   Murthy, Iyengar, Joseph,  et alia 

GAS LOADING EXPERIMENTS
Autoradiography of Deuterated Ti and Pd Targets for Spatially Resolved Detection of Tritium Produced by Cold Fusion -Rout, Srinivasan  et alia 

Evidence for Production of Tritium via Cold Fusion Reactions in Deuterium Gas Loaded Palladium - Krishnan, et alia

 
 

"No one is going to help us.   We've got to do it ourselves.'

                         "United 93'' 

Energy secretary says coal, oil will power U.S. for decades

 Houston Chronicle  - Oil and coal will continue to power the U.S. economy for many years, even as more emphasis is put on developing alternative sources of energy, U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman said Saturday in Houston.  "Fossil fuels will continue to dominate ... for several decades at least," Bodman said during a commencement address to about 350 members of the South Texas College of Law 2006 graduating class at the George R. Brown Convention Center.  .... one of the most important sources of energy will be nuclear power, along with the means of safely operating the plants and disposing of nuclear waste, he said.

(Secretary) Bodman has told Congress that part of the solution will come from increased research on hydrogen, solar and biological fuels, and fusion, a nuclear reaction that produces no radioactive waste.

["Perhaps someone should tell him that the only form of fusion that produces no radioactive waste is Cold Fusion." -  R. van Spaandonk]
 
 
 

 

Carbon Fullerenes Now Have Metallic Cousins

Scientists have uncovered a class of gold atom clusters that are the first known metallic hollow equivalents of the famous hollow carbon fullerenes known as buckyballs..... 
The fullerene is made up of a sphere of 60 carbon (C) atoms; gold (Au) requires many fewer—16, 17 and 18 atoms, in triangular configurations more gem-like than soccer ball. At more than 6 angstroms across, or roughly a ten-millionth the size of a comma, they are nonetheless roomy enough to cage a smaller atom. 
Experiments at the PNNL-based W.R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory elicited the photoelectron spectra of clusters smaller than Au32, which had been theorized as the gold-cage analog to C60 but ruled out by Wang’s group in an experiment that showed it as being a compact clump. 
They instead turned their attention to clusters smaller than 20 atoms, which earlier work by Wang’s group showed were 3-D, but larger than 13 atoms, known to be flat. The spectra and calculations showed that clusters of 15 atoms or fewer remained flat but that all but one possible configuration of 16, 17 and 18 atoms open in the middle. At 19 atoms, the spaces fill in again to form a near-pyramid. 

“Au-16 is beautiful and can be viewed as the smallest golden cage,” Wang said. ....Wang and his co-workers suspect “that many different kinds of atoms can be trapped inside” these hollow clusters, a process called “doping.” “These doped cages may very well survive on surfaces,” suggesting a method for influencing physical and chemical properties at smaller-than-nano scales, “depending on the dopants.” 
Wang’s group has not yet attempted to imprison a foreign atom in the hollow Au cages, but they plan to try. 

Being invisible 'a possibility'  -   Reuters  May 26, 2006

"NEW materials that can change the way light and other forms of radiation bend around an object may provide a way to make objects invisible, researchers said.  Two separate teams of researchers have come up with theories on ways to use experimental "metamaterials" to cloak an object and hide it from visible light, infrared light, microwaves and perhaps even sonar probes.
"Imagine a situation where a medium guides light around a hole in it," physicist Ulf Leonhardt of Britain's University of St Andrews, wrote in one of the reports, published in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.
"The light rays end up behind the object as if they had travelled in a straight line.
"Any object placed in the hole would be hidden from sight. The medium would create the ultimate optical illusion: invisibility," Mr Leonhardt wrote.  .... Metamaterials are composite structures that deliberately resemble nothing found in nature. They are engineered to have unusual properties, such as the ability to bend light in unique ways."

---

. 

"It looks like as if three men walking behind are seen .... during a demonstration of optical camouflage technology at the Tokyo University in Tokyo Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2003. The demonstration conducted by Faculty of Engineering Prof. Susumu Tachi ... that will eventually enable camouflaged objects virtually transparent by wearing an optical device. This photo was taken through a viewfinder that provides with a combined image of moving images taken behind Obana and him wearing a luminous jacket that makes a transparent effect."

 
Invisibility cloak 'five years away'   - Telegraph UK

"Scientists have taken the first steps towards creating a Harry Potter-style cloak of invisibility.
Professor John Pendry, from Imperial College London, said that it may not take long to develop an invisible fabric - assuming there is sufficient research into the technology. .... The obvious military applications have attracted support from the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which funded the early research.  Already the scientists are a long way towards the easier goal of creating a cloak that can render objects invisible to radar or radio waves. Both have longer wavelengths than visible light, making them less challenging to work with.  "We are confident we can build a cloak that will work for radar within 18 months," said Prof Pendry, one of the authors of a research paper published today in the journal Science.
The key to the invisibility cloak is "metamaterial" - exotic composite material made using nanotechnology that can change the direction of electromagnetic radiation.  .... Metamaterials have already been demonstrated by Professor David Smith, from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, one of the US scientists who contributed to the Science paper."

 
U.S. 'Must Start Building Nuclear Power Plants,' President Bush Tells Industry Executives - US Newswire via Yahoo    Nuclear Energy Institute 

SAN FRANCISCO- President George W. Bush said the nation "must start building nuclear power plants" in a videotaped address to the nation's nuclear energy industry leaders here today.. "To maintain our economic leadership and strengthen our energy security, America must start building nuclear power plants." 
"Our economy is creating new jobs. It is also creating new demands for energy ... By expanding our use of nuclear power, we can make our energy supply more reliable, our environment cleaner and our nation more secure for future generations."   ... 

Over the past year, 10 companies have announced plans to file license applications with the NRC for as many as 20 new nuclear power plants. 

-- Industry-average production costs of 1.7 cents per kilowatt-hour remain the lowest among all forms of energy except for hydroelectric facilities and represent a 33 percent decline over the past 10 years. 

-- The industry produced 782 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2005, the second-highest ever. 
 NEI President and CEO Frank L. "Skip" Bowman ... said. "Success may require innovative approaches on both sides and new ways of doing business." 

DESPITE the US Constitution, the directives of the US Congress, the President, Secretary Bodman and present situtation with overwhelming energy need requiring America (and the Democracies) to invest in new technologies involving alternative energy INCLUDING COLD FUSION, there has been, and is, nothing but obstruction, cover-ups, and a systematic pattern of allowing some in the DoE and USPTO to continue their nefarious disingenuous behavior DESIGNED to rob future generations of Americans of the very technology that was first announced in America on March 23, 1989, on the very same day that the Exxon Valdez crashed.

(*) Despite America's War on Terror, despite the rising cost of oil, despite Presidential Directive, even now, the Patent Office has egregiously planned to "deep-six" all cold fusion applications along with all applications involving room temperature superconductivity and any application "which, if issued, would generate unfavorable publicity for the USPTO". 
   Want to help the United States of America gain energy independence?

 
Complete 80-page legal decision  - and biography of Tom Valone's 6-year, cold fusion, IRI and COFE-centered, arbitration battle with the systematically corrupt (*) USPTO and others who have worked to destroy the development of cold fusion in the United States (as they transfer the technology overseas)

From the Decision: "What there is evidence of is "harassment, or bad faith, malice or provocation on the part of others involved in the matter," and it came in bundles.   The activities and motives of Park and Zimmerman have been extensively recounted and explained, and with regard to the cancellation of grievant's State Department, Secretary's Open Forum presentation, deplorable.   The malice shown by Park in his solely economic driven campaign to block any of the nontraditional scientists from receiving recognition by any government agency as having an idea worthy of a slice of government R&D funding may be a point of pride within the APS.   But to an outsider who champions free and open exploration of any scientific thought, no matter how far out on the fringe, his conduct is outrageous.   The worth of a new idea is to be determined in the democratic and open arena of competing thoughts, and not blocked from the arena by the greedy economic self-interest of those already in the limelight."

 "Seemingly lost on those with control over slicing the government pie who are persuaded by the relentless drumbeat of the Parks and Zimmermans, is that those questing for "free energy," whether through cold fusion or by way of some other "emerging technology," may be similar to the alchemists of centuries back who never turned base metals into gold, but were the forerun­ners of modern chemistry, got the Periodic Table of Elements off to a start, and among all things, discovered how to duplicate Asian porcelain which at the time was worth more than its weight in gold..
So too, those in pursuit of "free energy" could well spinoff useful advances in knowledge while failing to achieve their "holy grail." ....

"None of Mr. Godici's (Patent Commissioner) answers was totally satisfactory, and the urge, not well restrained, to say, if not scream: Hold it a minute!  Isn't time to go back to the earlier days of the PTO when inventors had to produce working models of their devices?  .... the PTO has the National Institute of Standards and Technology to test and verify or reject claims of subtle, hard to grasp accomplishments."
 

Constitution of the United States     A History 

Article 1 Section 8. 

"The Congress shall have power .... To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;" 

---

   PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE 
TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, THE US PATENT OFFICE, 
THE US CONGRESS AND THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
(January 31, 2006) 

President Bush: "Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. Here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world."
"The best way to break this addiction is through technology. Since 2001, we have spent nearly 10 billion dollars to develop cleaner, cheaper, more reliable alernative energy sources – and we are on the threshold of incredible advances. So tonight, I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative – a 22-percent increase in clean-energy research at the Department of Energy, to push for breakthroughs in two vital areas. To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants; revolutionary solar and wind technologies; and clean, safe nuclear energy."

"First: I propose to double the Federal commitment to the most critical basic research programs in the physical sciences over the next ten years. This funding will support the work of America’s most creative minds as they explore promising areas such as nanotechnology, supercomputing, and alternative energy sources." 

For cold fusion, there has been systematically obstruction by the US Patent Office (and some scientific journals) even as its technology has progressed in every other country. 

The Patent Office has defied the Constitution, the Congress and the American people, thereby indirectly forcing Americans to remain "addicted to oil" for almost two decades.  And there is absolutely no change in sight.

Call the President and your Senators and Congresspersons today and DEMAND 
that the US Patent Office take American inventors, cold fusion and the US Consitution seriously.
 
 

  "No one is going to help us. We've got to do it ourselves."

  Want to Help?

Demand a Congressional hearing with examination of the backgrounds
-and the removal - 
of all those in the US Patent Office and Dept of Energy
who have conspired and systematically attempted to stop and destroy American inventiveness and Yankee ingenuity involving cold fusion while they have transferred these technologies overseas.

President George W. Bush  E-mail Address:  President@whitehouse.gov 
Business Information: Fax: (202) 456-2461   White House Opinion Line: (202) 456-1111 

CAPITOL TOLL-FREE SWITCHBOARD: (888) 355-3588 (toll-free) or (202) 334-3121 

Call Your Senators & Representatives TODAY - 24hr line.
Please call both of your Senators TODAY. Ask for your Senator by name at the numbers above. 
If you don't know his/her name or if  the lines are busy, get to the URL http://www.senate.gov and then click on "Senators" at the top left to find your senators' names and their offices' direct phone numbers. 

This website lists e-mail addresses of all the staffers assigned to the various congressmen and senators.

HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: Congressman John Boehner, R-OH 
DC (202) 225-6205      OH (513) 779-5400 

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Sen. Bill Frist, R-TN 
DC (202)224-3344 

  Where the dream of harnessing the sun's power could come true
James Randerson  May 24, 2006 The Guardian

There is a deafening, unearthly howl as if a jumbo jet was firing up its engines in the Albert Hall. On the screen in the control room a ghostly pinkish glow whips round the edges of the inside of the nuclear reactor. At its core it is 10 times hotter than the centre of the sun. This, according to some physicists, is the solution to the energy crisis - a future with cheap, reliable, safe and nearly waste-free power. ...
Its advocates say nuclear fusion is the most promising long-term solution to t
he energy crisis, offering the possibility of abundant power from cheap fuel with no greenhouse gases and low levels of radioactive waste. But critics say the government is gambling huge sums of money - 44% of the UK's research and development budget for energy - on a long shot with no guarantee of ever producing useful energy.  ...   One of fusion's big advantages over fission is safety. Firstly, there is no chance of a runaway meltdown as happened at Chernobyl. If you stop applying the fuel or switch off the magnetic jacket that keeps the fuel in the reactor, the reaction just stops.  "It is very difficult to keep it running. It is like keeping honey on the back of a spoon," said Mathias Brix, a physicist at Jet. Also, the quantities of fuel involved are much smaller than in fission reactors. 
Jet (Joint European Torus) - Experimental fusion reactor built in 1983 at Culham, near Oxford. It was the first fusion reactor in the world to use fusion fuel (in 1991).

The reaction chamber of Jet at Culham, Oxfordshire. 

---

[ Ed: Unlike hot fusion, cold fusion does not make everything radioactive by neutron irradiation.  And cold fusion yielded the first fusion rreactors in the world to use fusion fuel (in 1989). Also, unlike hot fusion, cold fusion has NO radioactive waste and has already achieved breakeven.]

"America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world."
"To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants; revolutionary solar and wind technologies; and clean, safe nuclear energy."

State of The Union Address Transcript 

---

 (President) Bush: U.S. on Verge of Energy Breakthrough - Deb Riechmann AP 
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Saying the nation is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that would "startle" most Americans, President Bush on Monday outlined his energy proposals to help wean the country off foreign oil. Less than half the crude oil used by refineries is produced in the United States, while 60 percent comes from foreign nations  ....  "It creates a national security issue and we're held hostage for energy by foreign nations that may not like us," (President) Bush said. 
....  "Our nation is on the threshold of new energy technology that I think will startle the American people," (President) Bush said. "We're on the edge of some amazing breakthroughs - breakthroughs all aimed at enhancing our national security and our economic security and the quality of life of the folks who live here in the United States."

 
Although cold fusion has, for the time being, been stopped for proceeding normally  in the United States of America by a systematic conspiracy by some in the Department of Energy and the US Patent Office, it has proceeded worldwide, with superb experimental work continuing in Japan, Russia, China, France, Italy, and India.

---

Iran admits it is trying to develop nuclear fusion - The Scotsman May 30, 2006 

IRAN is pressing ahead with research tests on nuclear fusion, a type of atomic reaction which has yet to be developed for commercial power generation, a senior Iranian official said yesterday.
Iran said in the mid-1990s it was working on nuclear fusion research but this is the first mention in years that the work is continuing and comes at a time of heightened tension over Iran's nuclear programme.

... "Iran has done various fusion tests for research purposes at its Amirabad research reactor over the last few years," the official said, referring to the reactor in central Tehran, adding that Iran was continuing to carry out such tests. We do fusion tests for research purposes from time to time  ....
Fusion tries to generate power by joining the nuclei of atoms together, but scientists have yet to develop a commercial way of doing this so that it produces more energy than it consumes."

---

[Ed: Meanwhile, America is taking the "go slow" approach to fusion, even as cold fusion has demonstrated over-unity energy production which could eliminate America's "addiction" to oil.  Why the obstruction?  Much more below, and in the COLD FUSION TIMES.]

London, England (AHN)—A British inventor unveils the world's most fuel-efficient vehicle, a three-wheel “TeamGreen” car capable of doing 8,000 miles to the gallon.The 45-year-old inventor, Andy Green, from the University of Bath, built his budget eco-motor for just £2,000 .... It has taken Mr. Green more than two years to design and build the car, which will be the fourth eco-vehicle he has built. He holds the British record for fuel-efficiency, with 6,603 miles to the gallon in a previous car. ....  the new vehicle is powered by a single cylinder four-stroke engine with a capacity of just 35cc and runs with a special management system incorporating fuel injection. 
 

More info here: 
 Lone inventor carries British hopes for world car race title

Record-breaking laser is hot stuff -  Mark Peplow 

With the heat of a burning sun, a laser pulse has ripped through pure sapphire, heating it faster than any explosion ever recorded. The experiment was a blast, say physicists who reckon their laser can drive temperature increases of a billion billion (10**18) degrees per second, although they could only keep it going for a couple of hundred femtoseconds (with a femtosecond being 10**-15 s). That tops the previous heating-rate record, they say. The intense heating power of the laser made miniature fireballs, just thousandths of a millimetre in size, at pressures of 10 terapascals (10**13 Pa). That's about 20 times the pressure at the Earth's core. .... The intense crush also raised the temperature to about half a million °C. "You have the same parameters in an atomic explosion," says Vladimir Tikhonchuk, a theoretical physicist from the University of Bordeaux, France.  The success shows that scientists can now simulate the intense condition at the hearts of planets, or possibly even trigger fusion reactions, using a conventional tabletop laser. .... Each laser pulse lasted just 200 femtoseconds, enough time for light travelling in a vacuum to zip across the width of a human hair. The sapphire exploded under the heat in just a few femtoseconds, and as the ball of shredded atoms grew it became much less dense, making further heating much less efficient. .... 

Two ovoids of melted saphire with tiny holes left behind by the laser blast. 

Juodkazis S., et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. , 96, 166101 (2006). 
Haines M. G., et al. Phys. Rev. Lett., 96, 075003 (2006)

JT-60 Tokamak Reactor Doubles Plasma Confinement Record  Sven Olsen - May 10, 2006 

"The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) just announced that its JT-60 Fusion Tokamak reactor nearly doubled the world record of tokamak plasma from 16.5 seconds to 28.6 seconds.  Nuclear physicists propose that once tokamak reactors can achieve approximately 400 seconds of plasma, the reactor will achieve a stable, sustainable nuclear fusion reaction.
The JT-60 tokamak is one of the largest tokamak reactors in operation today, and was the same reactor that set the previous fusion confinement time of 16.5 seconds.  The previous world record for plasma duration stood for two years." 

---

Unlike hot fusion reactors, cold fusion reactors have run for days and weeks, cleanly, without neutrons, and without pollution or radioactive products.  Yet, because of the competition with oil and hot fusion, cold fusioneers have been attacked for 17 years by the some in the DoE, the US Patent Office, and some hot fusion physicists to a degree that is unknown in other competing energy and science fields.

U.S. energy research is declining  - Conference here shows other nations way ahead
 The Capital Times  - Mike Ivey 

"Given the decades-long warnings about a looming world energy crisis - punctuated by the recent spike in crude oil prices - you'd assume the U.S. has been ramping up its research and development spending on energy. 
Think again.  Since 1980, energy research has fallen from 10 percent to 2 percent of total R&D spending. 
....This comes as other nations, such as France and Finland, have made startling advances in nuclear energy and dramatic reductions in carbon dioxide emissions - the pollution from burning oil, gasoline, coal or other fossil fuels and the major cause of global warming.
....Consider the U.S. is spending $67 billion annually on the war on terror vs. $3.4 billion on energy research, according to the National Science Foundation. Private sector pharmaceutical companies are investing 10 times as much in R&D as energy firms like Exxon Mobil or Chevron.
Need more numbers? 
The U.S spent $58 billion annually (inflation-adjusted) during Reagan's run-up on defense spending from 1981-89. It spent $23 billion in 1963-72 on Kennedy's Apollo project to put a man on the moon. 
"We could kick the fossil fuel habit in 10 years if we had the same kind of visionary leadership as JFK," says David Goodstein, author of "Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil." 
.... Finland is even a step further ahead, Perves said, opening a pressurized nuclear reactor in 2005 that is the most efficient plant developed to date.  Meanwhile, the U.S. nuclear industry has been on hold, with no new plants opened since the early 1970s. Wisconsin remains under a moratorium on construction of any new nuclear plants, a law that dates to 1984. Corradini said Wisconsin could build a state-of-the-art nuclear power plant for about the same cost of the proposed new coal-burning facility in Oak Creek.  "It's a political question in this country," he said. "There is no leadership."  In addition to new sources of clean energy from the sun, wind or biofuels such as ethanol, conference attendees said there are great strides to be made in conservation or small-scale renewable energy projects like low-temperature solar heating."

 
Produce More Domestic Energy, Now! - American Spectator - Quin Hillyer

"With higher gasoline prices a continuing political concern, it's high time somebody placed the blame where it belongs -- and high time that somebody recognizes that while there are few short-term solutions that can immediately alleviate the cash crunch, it's worth realizing that today's long-term solutions will one day make a difference in some future year's short-term. ..... TODAY, LET'S FOCUS ON THE KEY problem of a lack of domestic production of oil and gas. National public policy in this regard has been horrendously negligent -- and the Alaskan refuge drilling ban is only a small part of the problem.

The bigger problem is the overall moratorium on all drilling off U.S. coasts except those in the central and western Gulf of Mexico. Vast supplies of oil and natural gas lie off of Alaska, California, Florida, Virginia, and (I'm told) probably New Jersey and the Carolinas as well. But they lie untapped, forbidden from use by the utterly counterproductive agitation by environmentalists and tourism boosters with overly heightened sensitivities but too little sense (and too little knowledge)."
 
 
 

High Gasoline Prices Here to Stay - Bodman(U.S. Energy Secretary) - Forbes 

WASHINGTON (AFX) - High gasoline prices are here to stay for at least the next couple of years and the government can do little in the short term to mitigate them, US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said at the weekend.  'Suppliers have lost control of the market,' Bodman told NBC television, in explaining how gasoline (petrol) prices had risen as much as 60 cents a gallon, or at least 25 pct, in one month. 
'We've got demand coming from China, from India, from the United States,' reflecting strong economies, Bodman said.

 
Energy Sec: US 'Off Oil' in 4 Years - Newsmax.com 

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Sunday that the U.S. was just "three or four years" away from perfecting the process that would allow American motorists to fuel their vehicles with ethanol instead of gasoline. 
... "We will be in a position over the next three or four years . . . where we will have designed the enzymes and we will be in a position that we can then start the conversion." 
.... Bodman estimated that by 2025, ethanol production would replace about 20 percent of total U.S. gasoline consumption.

    Transmission of EVOs Through Metal - Ken Shoulders 

High-density and highly organized clusters of electronic charge, or EVOs, are shown to transit through metal with relative ease compared to that of single electrons. Upon reaching an interface between metal and vacuum, the charges exit the metal somewhat disheveled as clusters and propagate through vacuum as both free electrons and clusters. 
An EVO injection velocity of a few hundred volts easily penetrates 1 millimeter of aluminum. Although contrary to established electron penetration theory, lower injection velocities produce greater EVO mobility and lifetime within the metal target. The configuration used provides a cold, intense electron emission source without concern for either work function or geometry of the cathode. 

[many papers at the site; excellent experiment work]

Ex-CIA chief: Oil key to U.S. security - Jason Cato 
TRIBUNE-REVIEW 

Think gas prices are bad now?  Imagine another terrorist attack -- especially one on Saudi Arabian oil refineries, former CIA Director R. James Woolsey said Monday during a visit to Pittsburgh. 
..... One way to beat that -- and hit Islamic extremists in the pocketbook -- is for Americans to start using renewable fuel, Woolsey said. That includes ethanol and biofuels as alternatives to gas and diesel.

[Ed. Ending the conspiracy against cold fusion by the DOE and Dept of Commerce would also help] 

In addition to alternative fuels, Woolsey also advocates fuel-efficient vehicles and technological advances to build cars and trucks out of lighter carbon composites -- all in an effort to use less oil. 
.... Continued dependency on foreign oil could pose problems if future Middle Eastern regimes are not as cooperative  .... Short of sweeping technological and fuel changes, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have become focused on more short-term answers to high gasoline prices. 
.... Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has called for more homegrown oil. 
"Consumers are feeling pain at the pump, and Republicans are moving aggressively to address their concerns," he said. "We must reduce our dependence on foreign oil by increasing domestic exploration, improving our energy infrastructure and continuing to encourage conservation."

Argonne's drive: new fuels for cars
Chicago Sun-Times - Tara Burghart

It's like a giant rolling Erector Set -- for engineers who really like to play around with automotive components.
Formally called the Mobile Automotive Technology Testbed, the bare-bones chassis plays a vital role in Argonne National Laboratory's research into new ways to power vehicles. One day, the engineers can test how an electric motor performs with a gasoline-powered engine and a manual transmission. The next day they can substitute an engine fueled by hydrogen. Soon, they intend to place giant batteries on the testbed's rear platform to research a plug-in hybrid vehicle that could increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. ...
The building where the testbed is housed illustrates the nation's changing priorities. The structure previously was used for research into magnets necessary for use in nuclear reactors.  ...
Although Argonne has done work on fuel cells and similar futuristic technologies, Hillebrand says he is most excited about its potential to play a lead role among the national labs in developing plug-in hybrids.
A standard hybrid such as the Toyota Prius uses an electric motor, a small battery and a gasoline motor. With a plug-in hybrid, the small battery is replaced by much bigger battery packs that can be recharged through a standard 120-volt outlet.   With such a car, a driver could travel the first 10, 20 or even 40 miles of a trip on battery power before the vehicle would switch to the gasoline engine, Hillebrand says.

Kramer  (100 MPG cars) come to Washington
Evworld -| Bill Moore

Felix Kramer is on a mission, one that carried him and his new plug-in Toyota Prius hybrid to the steps of Capitol Hill. There he and representatives of Electro Energy, which brought along their own plug-in Prius, showcased to some of Washington's most powerful politicians .... For the auto companies making the rounds in Washington, the message from GM and Ford was we're doing E85, which is a relatively cheap fix of less than $200 per car and according to Kramer, "lets them off of the hook for the next ten years." While he favors ethanol, it alone isn't enough to seriously address America's oil addiction when the nation consumes 140 billion gallons of gasoline annually, while producing just under 5 billion gallons of ethanol.
"If you fuel the local miles with electricity, then you need only 40 billion gallons," he said. "That's really an achievable goal."  He went on to explain how his small, three-person team at California Cars Initiative worked with Electro Energy, a Danbury, Connecticut firm that has developed a technology to improve NiMH batteries for use in plug-in hybrids ... "And so, we wanted to show a lithium ion car, the Energy CS car that is my car, the car I drive every day, and this NiMH car from Connecticut. It was a great combination to have those two cars there."  Kramer explained that there is a slight difference in the low-speed, electric-only range of the two cars: Electro Energy's NiMH car will do about 20 miles, while the Energy CS -- equipped with Valence Saphion lithium ion batteries -- will do between 25-30 miles as long as the speed is below 35 mph, at which point Toyota's computer control system will switch on the gasoline engine.

 
Bubble-fusion group suffer setback - Team admits a mix-up with one of their neutron detectors
Nature - Eugenie Samuel Reich 

An erratum providing details of the mistake by Rusi Taleyarkhan of Purdue University and colleagues has been published in Physical Review Letters1. .... Taleyarkhan claimed to have deployed three independent methods of detecting these neutrons, one of which was a boron trifluoride gas proportional tube with a polyethylene covering. His erratum notes that this actually turned out to be a lithium iodide crystal scintillation detector, also with a polyethylene covering.  According to the erratum, the error was discovered "upon disassembly of the outer coverings" of the detector and is due to "an oversight which was based on incorrect information from a person's recollection who loaned this apparatus for the study". 

(Neutron expert Mike Saltmarsh of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee) points out that the data from the lithium iodide detector, as it is now known to be, are consistent with Naranjo's claim. In Taleyarkhan's experiment, the 'boron trifluoride' detector observed high levels of gamma rays (gamma-rays) alongside the neutrons, despite the fact that boron trifluoride detectors are not very sensitive to gamma-rays. Taleyarkhan and his colleagues suggest that neutrons from fusion were interacting with the detector's polyethylene coating to produce a slew of rays.  But the lithium iodide detector is more sensitive to gamma-rays, says Saltmarsh, and the lab source posited by Naranjo could easily have provided enough for the levels observed. 

Taleyarkhan's co-author Robert Block, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, disagrees. Block says he and Taleyarkhan still think the observed gamma-rays are produced by fusion neutrons colliding in the polyethylene covering, no matter what the detector.

Purdue University scientist stands by his findings
Bubble Fusion Research Under Scrutiny-  Erico Guizzo  IEEE Spectrum 

This past March, Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Ind., announced that it was initiating a formal review of the bubble fusion research by Taleyarkhan...  Taleyarkhan told IEEE Spectrum that he was surprised by the allegations, which he said had not been discussed with him directly, and that he stands by his work. 
... Though Taleyarkhan and his collaborators are able to provide lucid accounts of how they believe they've achieved bubble fusion, relying on accepted principles of nuclear physics, skepticism centers on whether their neutrons are truly fusion's telltale neutrons 
... In a commentary submitted to Physical Review Letters, Brian Naranjo, a graduate student in Putterman's laboratory, analyzed data published in Taleyarkhan's latest paper and concluded that the energy spectrum presented as coming from neutrons produced in fusion is not the one expected for that type of reaction..... Taleyarkhan's response is that Naranjo "did not model the right experiment." The neutrons, he said, are not flying directly to the detectors placed around the flask; they are reflecting off different materials, such as the liquid, the glass flask, and ice packs that surround the setup. "He did not account for those intervening materials," Taleyarkhan says, adding, "You have a whole rainbow of neutron energies coming out." 
Taleyarkhan's collaborator Richard T. Lahey Jr., a professor of engineering and physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, N.Y., says that a successful bubble fusion experiment depends heavily on the Pyrex glass flask and the ceramic piezoelectric ring that is attached to it to generate the sound waves. "I have offered to send actual design drawings so that others can build it and use it. Some have taken me up on my offer, but others have not." He says that Putterman was using a design "that was doomed to failure" and that he told him so when visiting his laboratory at UCLA last year.
.... "We had a demonstration, a live demonstration in our lab," Taleyarkhan told Spectrum. To detect the neutrons that he says are proof of fusion, Taleyarkhan used special plastic track detectors. These are transparent rectangles 2 by 1.3 centimeters and about as thick as a credit card that register the passage of neutrons that hit them; the tracks left are observable under a microscope. Taleyarkhan placed two pieces close to the flask and one away from it to serve as the background measurement. After several hours of exposure, only the pieces next to the flask had a significant number of neutron tracks. "It's actually live data. Unambiguous. You don't have to depend on electronics and fancy equipment. You see this thing in front of your eyes," Taleyarkhan says.

      Dr. Melvin H. Miles Cold Fusion Website

    Great new website devoted to cold fusion by one of the best researchers in the field, Dr. Mel Miles, PhD 

  Photo gallery
  Dr. Miles' Cold Fusion Internet Links

 

The firing of GRABLE from a 280 mm cannon was the first time an atomic artillery shell was fired and detonated. The Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army, and the Army Chief of Staff, along with 96 Congressional observers, viewed the detonation from an area 11 kilometers west of ground zero. 

Video

Atom Breaks Rules, Beats Friction   Live Science 30 March 2006 Bjorn Carey 

Scientists have found a molecule that can spin freely in liquid, clearing out water like a person swinging suitcases would clear a crowded room. The molecule spins without causing friction. That shouldn't be possible, according to a chemical physics theory. The finding could alter the way scientists think about chemical reactions in liquids. 
Researchers hit a drop of iodine cyanide and water with pulses from an ultraviolet laser, exciting one type of molecule to reconfigure into a small, peanut shape with a carbon atom on one end, a nitrogen atom on the other. 
The molecule heated up to 8,000 degrees Fahrenheit (4,427 Celsius) and started spinning at a furious 270 trillion rotations per minute.  .... Within the first quarter-turn, the molecule created a shock wave that kicked away surrounding water molecules. The peanut molecule created a nearly frictionless zone for itself in the 10-trillionths of a second the reaction lasted.  ....After the molecule completed about 10 rotations, the shock dwindled and the water molecules rushed back in.  Despite its fleeting nature, the reaction managed to smash the linear response theory, a chemistry model that states such a thing can't happen in a liquid environment.  ... The molecule's activity also runs against Newton's third law of motion, which states that for every action there is an equal, but opposite, reaction. In the new experiment, there water molecules are displaced, but they don't in turn do anything to the peanut molecule. 

Does fusion scientist 'hold the secret'? - Deseret News March 24, 2006 Elaine Jarvik

He was ballyhooed and then discredited and then largely forgotten. But cold fusion pioneer Dr. Martin Fleischmann still holds the secret to a cheap energy source for the world, says a California company that plans to produce prototypes of a cold fusion-powered home heater, with Fleischmann as "senior scientific adviser." ... Eventually, though, "when truth and justice are done," says David Kubiak, the University of Utah will bask in the glory of its association with cold fusion. Kubiak is communications director of D2Fusion of Foster City, Calif., and Los Alamos, N.M., which will be hosting Fleischmann and is setting up a lab using his "recipe."

These days, Kubiak says, the term "cold fusion" has generally been replaced by "solid state fusion," "low-energy nuclear reactions" or "nuclear reactions in condensed matter." But the principles are still the same — a fusion reaction produced at normal temperatures using hydrogen-loving metals such as palladium or titanium.
To start with, D2Fusion plans to produce a 2,000-3,000 watt heater that would never need refueling. ...

Kubiak says scores of labs around the world are pursuing cold-fusion techniques, some of them originally inspired by Fleischmann's work in Utah. Fleischmann and Pons originally built their device for $100,000 in the basement of the Henry Eyring Chemistry Building. ....  The researchers now working on the technique "are not tin-pot inventors working out of a garage," he says. "They're top-notch scientists, including a couple of Nobel laureates."  "Instead of arguing any more about the theoretical basis of it," he says, "we're saying 'this works, this is where we should be putting our attention.' "

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home." 
- Kenneth Olsen, president and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977. 

  It'll Never Work!         COLD FUSION TIMES - INFORMATION FOR SKEPTICS

"There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will." 
- Albert Einstein, 1932. 

                "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." 
[Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre] 

          "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." 
[Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895] 

          "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." 
[Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre] 

It'll Never Work!COLD FUSION TIMES - INFORMATION FOR SKEPTICS

Make Way For Ethanol - How fields of corn may hold the key to the future’s fuel source
The Guardian -  Katie Westfall 

The alcohol known as ethanol was used as a fuel in the early 20th century before Prohibition criminalized alcohol production, but has recently re-entered the limelight and is now being used as a fuel additive. It replaces the anti-knocking agent known as MBTE, which is being phased out after it was discovered to pollute groundwater. 
Ethanol is most commonly used in a blend known as E10, which is 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline. However, with the development of “flex-fuel” cars specifically built to handle a higher amount of the alcohol, the ethanol industry is pushing for the use of E85, a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Currently, there are about five million of these vehicles produced or sold. 
...  The United States is not the first to experiment with alternative fuels, and is, in fact, following in the wake of countries like Brazil, which has been producing ethanol-running cars since the late 1970s. According to an ethanol study conducted by the Solar Energy Research Institute, up to 90 percent of new cars in Brazil run on pure ethanol produced from sugar cane, with the remainder running on a blend of 20 percent ethanol and 80 percent gasoline. 
Although research is not complete, the preliminary experiments and computational studies have shown that, in some aspects, ethanol is better for the environment than gasoline or diesel fuels. 
.....  Saxena thinks that these obstacles can be overcome and that ethanol is a good stepping stone for energy evolution.  “Ethanol as an energy source is a good interim solution until we are able to accomplish hydrogen economy, fuel cells and cold-fusion technologies,” he said.

 Sonofusion - Background : The Star in a Jar

---

JET  Energy

PHOTOGRAPH OF PHUSOR CATHODE SHOWS ASYMMETRIC ELECTROLYSIS OF A DIFFERENT TYPE OF COLD FUSION SYSTEM . 
Asymmetric Electrolysis (above) 

Hydrogen fuel cells become faster and greener with new catalyst
Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Idaho have developed a highly efficient catalyst of multi-walled carbon nanotubes decorated with tiny particles of a platinum and ruthenium composite. Preparation is a key factor in determining the activity of a catalyst.
The researchers selected a process using supercritical carbon dioxide, which has the properties of a gas and a liquid. The supercritical fluid technology may result in products and processes that are cleaner, less expensive and of higher quality than those produced using conventional solvents.

Venture capitalist backs biofuel, says country can go down petroleum-free path 
Stanford Report, May 10, 2006
Delivering the keynote address at a Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research forum, titled "Prosperity Despite Expensive Oil: Energy Solutions for California, America and the World," on April 21, (Vinod) Khosla endorsed ethanol technologies, which produce "biofuels" out of switchgrass, wood chips, corn and recycled fast food oil.
"I don't think oil will ever [fall to] $40 a barrel until an alternative appears," Khosla said. "If an alternative appears, we will see the manipulation of oil prices to drive alternatives out of business. This [tax] is to assure Wall Street that [it] will not be subject to oil price manipulation by Saudi Arabia."

Clearwater Man Puts Technology To Work

CLEARWATER -- Working in a small, two-room shop at the Airport Business Center, Klein, 63, said he has developed a gas that speeds welding and fusing times and improves automobile fuel efficiency 30 percent.
Klein said he has a patent pending on the gas he has been working on for 12 years. Various models of his H2O electrolyzers are being used across the country in high school shop classes and undergoing testing to be certified for use in welding shops. Flipping a switch on his H2O 1500, Klein picks up a hose with a metal tip, creates a spark, and instantly a blue and white glowing stream shoots out of the metal tip. 
He holds the tip with his fingers to prove how cool it is to the touch, unlike such a tip when oxy-acetylene is burned for welding. But the instant he sets the flame on a charcoal briquette, it glows bright orange. Then, within seconds, he burns a hole through a brick, cuts steel and melts Tungsten.
.... Klein said his method for introducing hydrogen into a vehicle to increase mileage is superior to hydrogen used in fuel cells.

British Rail's nuclear flying saucer
Long-suffering rail commuters may be perplexed to learn that British Rail once patented a design for a bizarre and apparently impractical nuclear flying saucer. The spacecraft, "powered by laser-controlled thermonuclear fusion", would have provided a much more interesting commute. .... According to The Register, the patent probably remained hidden for so long because it concerned nuclear technology and was filed during the Cold War. 
 
 

---

The next saucer to Shoeburyness leaves from platform 5 ...

"We're getting there." That was the motto of British Rail in its 1980s heyday. But how they thought they might get there will come as a surprise to even diehard trainspotters: a decade earlier engineers had patented plans to transport passengers by nuclear-powered flying saucer  ... (I)n 1973 an inventor, Charles Osmond Frederick, patented the design for a craft powered by laser-controlled thermonuclear fusion. Designed to reach high speeds in space, it was meant to move us around the globe and even to other planets....  The disc would have had a flat, slightly concave underside, the patent said. "A controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction is ignited by one or more pulsed laser beams produced by lasers and reflected or focused on to a central reaction zone on the underside of the platform." 
 

 Rejection leaves bubble-fusion patent high and dry - Eugenie Reich 
"The US patent office has been drawn into the debate over whether bubble fusion has been achieved. In a crushing rejection of a patent application on the phenomenon, patent examiner Ricardo Palabrica concludes that despite the claims for bubble fusion presented in Science1 in 2002, he doesn't believe a word of them. "There is no reputable evidence of record to support any allegations or claims that the invention is capable of operating as indicated," he writes. .... In his assessment, published in September 2005, he attacks Taleyarkhan's claimed invention as "nothing more than a variation" of the discredited concept of cold fusion first put forward in the late 1980s by Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, and cites reproducibility concerns as a serious obstacle to obtaining a patent. "The statute requires the applicant to inform, not to direct others to find out for themselves [how to reproduce the invention]," he writes. .... The rejection could have been appealed but in December 2005 the DOE instead abandoned the claim altogether. A version of the patent filed in 2002 at the World Intellectual Property Organization is still under review in many countries." 

---

What exactly  is the background of the patent Examiner who denied the American DOE a patent on this subject?   Mr. Ricardo Palabrica may have also worked for the (International Atomic Energy Commission) IAEA  which may have serious implications given that America is conducting a War on Terror while "addicted to oil".

• OPERATIONAL SAFETY OF NUCLEAR INSTALLATIONS BRAZIL REPORT TO THE GOVERNMENT OF BRAZIL  by International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA-TA-2361

• Mr. Palabrica apparently has also worked to circumvent dual regulation of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management program  Avoiding dual regulation of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management program Vlahakis, John G; Palabrica, Ricardo J  The 5th Annual International Conference on High Level Radioactive Waste Management. Part 3 (of 4), Las Vegas, NV, USA, 05/22-26/94; pp. 1593-1596. 1994  - The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (RW) has successfully negotiated the issuance of a Department of Energy (DOE) Headquarters Order that provides for exemption of RW from certain DOE directives....This Order is necessary to avoid the unwarranted cost and potential confusion resulting from dual regulation of RW facilities and activities by DOE and NRC. 

 Palabrica, R.J,, “International experience in the implementation of the lesson learned from the Three Mile Island incident”, Operational Safety of Nuclear Power Plants (Proc. Symp. Marseilles, 1983), Vol. 2, IAEA, Vienna (1984) , pp. 215–226.]

 

===>  Exactly when was Article 1 Section 8 amended to say  "The Congress shall have power ... To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries except when either anyone from  the International Atomic Energy Commission or Mohammad El-Baradei refuse to allow it."? 

[For Americans who want energy independence and are seriously concerned about this] 

 
Radioactive material found under N.Y. plant
High levels of strontium detected in groundwater near Hudson River

The radioactive leak in groundwater near the Hudson River came from the Indian Point nuclear power plant located in Buchanan, N.Y. 
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - High levels of a radioactive material — nearly three times the amount permitted in drinking water — were found in groundwater near the Hudson River beneath a nuclear plant, the owner said Tuesday. The groundwater does not intersect drinking supplies, and although the strontium-90 is believed to have reached the Hudson it would be safely diluted in the river, said Jim Steets, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast.  The strontium ...  was found in a well dug in a search for the source of a leak of radioactive water at the Indian Point complex, about 30 miles north of New York City.  NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Tuesday that the commission still believes that radioactivity in the water — given that it is not drinking water — is well below the level that would "pose a risk to public health and safety." 
Entergy said water samples were taken at four depths in the well. Strontium levels, in picocuries per liter, were 2.4, 3.86, 18.2, and 22.7. The drinking water limit is 8. Tritium, which becomes dangerous only at much higher concentrations than strontium, was found at 12,800, 14,700, 28,000 and 13,300 picocuries per liter. The drinking water limit is 20,000.

"The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty—a fad." 
- 'Advice' from a president of the Michigan Savings Bank to Henry Ford's lawyer Horace Rackham. Rackham ignored the advice and invested $5000 in Ford stock, selling it later for $12.5 million. 

     "... after a few more flashes in the pan, we shall hear very little more of Edison or his electric lamp. Every claim he makes has been tested and proved impracticable." 
          [New York Times, January 16, 1880] 

 

The US Patent Office discriminates against Yankee ingenuity by being disingenuous, by "losing" records, and by being fixated upon events in 1989. 

  AMERICA NEEDS A "MANHATTAN PROJECT" FOR COLD FUSION 
WHICH WILL BE THE WORLD'S FUTURE CLEAN ENERGY SOURCE

   But this has so far been obstructed by many including some in the DOE 
and the US Patent Office, some who apparently have worked for IAEA and others who routinely and systematically stiffle free trade and national development for their own nefarious and egregious reasons. 
Congress funds the Patent Office "To promote the progress of science and useful arts" and yet there is no promotion and stiffled limited, if any, progress in America. 

Hopefully DOE's Secretary Bodman and the Patent Office's Director Dudas will finally take President Bush's Directive (SOTU 1/31/06) seriously.   But they will not without YOUR help NOW. 

Call your Senator and Congressperson today and 
DEMAND that the US Congress force  the DOE and the US Patent Office 
to FINALLY take cold fusion seriously now -- 
or that they henceforth forever be held accountable for making America addicted to oil. 

President George W. Bush  E-mail Address:  President@whitehouse.gov 
Business Information: Fax: (202) 456-2461    White House Opinion Line: (202) 456-1111 
Toll free number to reach the US Capitol......1-877-762-8762 
  You can help!!!!  At least, write all your Representatives and Senators.

---

March 4th was the 217th Anniversary of the United States Constitution
(day it went into effect March 4, 1789).
Constitution of the United States     A History 

Article 1 Section 8. 
"The Congress shall have power .... To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;"

 

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: 
"Victory belongs to those who believe in it the most and believe in it the longest." 

State of The Union Address Transcript
White House | January 31, 2006 | President George Bush 
"Our nation is grateful to the fallen,
who live in the memory of our country.
We're grateful to all
who volunteer to wear our nation's uniform
-- and as we honor our brave troops,
let us never forget the sacrifices
of America's military families." 

[click each image for more information] 




Ray Charles --  "America The Beautiful" 

Chinese experimental thermonuclear reactor on discharge test in July - People's Daily 

China's new generation experimental Tokamak fusion device will conduct its first discharge test in July or August this year. If the experiments prove successful, it would be the world's first experimental nuclear fusion device to come into operation. . ... China has provided the project, dubbed the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), with an investment of 165 million yuan (about 20 million U.S. dollars). 
Using deuterium, which is in seawater, as fuel for reaction, a hydrogen plasma torus operating at over 100 million Celsius degrees will produce 500 megawatts of fusion power. The development of ITER is based on the idea of edging out irrecycled mineral resources such as uranium and plutonium. 
The EAST is an upgrade of China's first superconducting Tokamak device, dubbed HT-7, which was also built by the plasma physics institute in 1994. The HT-7 made China the fourth country in the world, after Russia, France and Japan, to have such a device. 

Building with light materials

Japan - A building under construction in Japan will use natural light to illuminate its rooms, even during the night. 
Japanese construction company Shimizu and electronics giant Sharp have jointly developed a transparent building material that absorbs light during the day and uses it to light up rooms when the Sun goes down. The material is being used to construct a new office complex in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, on the south eastern edge of Japan. 
Sections of the office's walls look transparent, but actually contain incredibly thin solar panels and as many as 320 light-emitting diodes that release whitish-blue light at night. .... the walls can convert 7% of solar energy into electricity and illuminate the building for an average of 4.6 hours every night.

 More cold water on fusion theory - Fascination with cold fusion Persists  - Apr. 15, 2006 Toronto Star - Jay Ingram 

It sounds weird, but in certain special circumstances, sound waves in a liquid can cause bubbles to collapse, and when they do they produce huge amounts (relative to their size, anyway) of energy. They can also reach temperatures that could sustain fusion. Taleyarkhan has seen this happen, more than once.

Nuclear fusion - Once is happenstance - Mar 9, 2006 
The Economist 

MAKE a mistaken claim in any branch of science, and endeavours in that field may be tainted for years. Faced with two such claims, the field is definitely in trouble. And that now seems to be the case for so-called “tabletop fusion”. .... Dr Naranjo took his data from a paper published by Dr Taleyarkhan in January. This appeared in an electronic format that allowed him to deduce those data from the graphs it showed, even though the raw numbers were not published. He argues that the resulting neutron energies are consistent with the decay of a standard radioactive source called 2{+5}2californium. Dr Taleyarkhan's description of his method explicitly excludes the possibility of such a source being present. Moreover, if Dr Naranjo is correct, 2{+5}2californium would appear to be present only in the experimental runs using deuterated acetone and not in the control experiments using normal acetone, pointing to the possibility of direct human interference. There is a certain amount of “history” between the two scientists. Dr Naranjo works in the laboratory of Seth Putterman, one of three researchers who peer-reviewed Dr Taleyarkhan's original Science paper and did not like it. When the journal published the paper anyway, Dr Putterman went public, arguing that Dr Taleyarkhan had not ruled out several potential sources of error in his paper. ... Moreover, the American patent office has quietly but firmly rejected Dr Taleyarkhan's bubble-fusion device. An application for a patent was filed in 2003, when he was still at Oak Ridge, on behalf of the Department of Energy, which fu