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Cold Fusion back in the news
By MB-BigB | May 31, 2008
Yoshiaki Arata, a scientist from Osaka University in Japan, has reignited the cold fusion debate with an apparently successful public demonstation of cold fusion. The process that Arata and his co-researcher Yue-Chang Zhang is using forces deuterium gas under pressure into an evacuated cell that contained a matrix of zirconium oxide containing palladium nanoparticles. The deuterium is then absorbed by the palladium to produce dense deuterium where the deuterium nuclei are close enough to fuse, thereby relesing heat and helium. When they injected the deuterium gas, the temperature in the cell increased to about 70C degrees, which was the result of both chemical and nuclear reactions, according to Arata. But when the gas was turned off, the center of the cell remained significantly warmer than the cell wall for 50 hours.
In the late 1980’s, American researchers Martin Fleishmann and Stanley Pons claimed cold fusion success when they demonstrated a tabletop device that supposed generated excess heat during electrolysis of heavy water with palladium electrodes. However, when other scientists were unable to replicate the experiment, their claims of cold fusion were dismissed. It’ll be very interesting to see if this new claim can hold up.
Update: 6/2/08 – Physicsworld.com blog has a much more detailed account of Arata’s cold fusion experiment, along with a raging reader debate. You can read it all here.
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- BNET roundup of ten serious nuclear fusion projects
- General Fusion raises $9M in venture financing
- Hybrid news – Honda Insight goes on sale this week, while the Ford Fusion Hybrid may not quite be living up to its EPA mpg numbers
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Topics: Hydrogen power | 3 Comments »
May 31st, 2008 at 5:48 pm
What do the late 1970’s/early 1980’s have in common with the present? It seems that every time there is an “energy crisis” the question of cold fusion reappears, and reports of progress are announced (which thereafter are soon forgotten).
While it would indeed be very good news if tangible and practical progress is made in this area, would it perhaps make more sense to focus on getting superconducting quantum devices to function at higher temperatures?
June 1st, 2008 at 1:58 am
[...] areas went ahead in other countries, as shown in this article (claiming success in cold fusion): Cold Fusion back in the news | Alternative Energy Info That article reports that researchers have used a process that forces deuterium gas under pressure [...]
April 19th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Most gov’t officials would not recognize Cold fusion if they were sitting in a warm bath created by it. It’s too simple to comprehend. They debunked it in the 70’s & 80’s and they will do it again.