DOE pronounces cold fusion dead -again

In what might have been a foreseen event, the DOE released it's report on cold fusion today, shooting it down in typical conventional physics method.

The report concludes that the cold fusion phenomena does not warrent further investigation, except for a few minor fields like metallurgy. The conclusion to the report can be found at the following URL:

newenergytimes.com...

In my opinion this was to be expected, science today is to grounded in past research to open up to new possibilities. The DOE will continue to look at Hot fusion for its source of sustainable energy.

[edit on 1-12-2004 by Sigma]

And yet a part of the government has been conducting similiar experiments to cold fusion and has found that indeed there is something occuring. They state that the amount of Tritium being produced shows that some kind of phenomenon unknown to the standard modus operandi is occuring.

I am beginning to believe our government is indeed schizo, with one head not agreeing(atleast completely) with the other.

www.nde.lanl.gov...

[edit on 2-12-2004 by Sigma]

Want to see what they are and have been up to?

FISSION WEAPONS

Also more can be found here Drawing Back the Curtain of Secrecy

"Don't ask....don't tell."

I'm not sure the report necessarily shoots down cold fusion, but it certainly doesn't seem to recommend that the DOE drop everything it's doing and dive headlong into full-blown cold fusion research.

For some time, I bought into the conventional wisdom that cold fusion is a crock. But then several reports have surfaced over the years from very reputable sources suggesting that maybe there is something to the theory.

However, none of them has been conclusive. It seems that this report echoes my own thoughts on the matter. There is possibly something of interest going on here, but exactly what it is remains unknown.

While cold fusion proponents may be disappointed that the DOE is unlikely to pour a lot of money into researching it, that doesn't mean it's necessarily dead.

In fact, compared to the initial hubbub surrounding Pons-Fleischmann back in the '80s, cold fusion theory seems to be enjoying more positive publicity and constructive interest than ever -- not that it could have gotten much worse.

As usual, it will be up to the pioneers, and not bureaucrats, to make something of cold fusion -- if there is anything to be made of it.

Slightly off topic but so called Bubble Fusion may be of interest in the future.

en.wikipedia.org...

The Oak Ridge replication

These experiments were repeated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by D. Shapira and M. J. Saltmarsh with more sophisticated neutron detection equipment and they reported that the neutron release was consistent with random coincidence.

A rebuttal by Taleyarkhan and the other authors of the original report claimed that the Shapira and Saltmarsh report failed to account for significant differences in experimental setup, including over an inch of shielding between the neutron detector and the sonoluminescing acetone. Taleyarkhan et al. report that when these differences are properly accounted for, the Shapira and Saltmarsh results are consistent with fusion.

Claims of replication in 2004

In 2004, new claims of bubble fusion were made by a team including Taleyarkhan, claiming that the results of previous experiments have been replicated under more stringent experimental conditions.
www.rpi.edu...