Talk:Cold fusion

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Former featured articleCold fusion is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.
Main Page trophyThis article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on August 24, 2004.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
August 16, 2004Featured article candidatePromoted
January 6, 2006Featured article reviewDemoted
June 3, 2006Peer reviewReviewed
June 7, 2006Good article nomineeListed
July 19, 2006Good article reassessmentDelisted
December 26, 2006[[review|Good article nominee]]Not listed
May 28, 2008Good article nomineeListed
November 23, 2008Good article reassessmentDelisted
Current status: Former featured article

This article was the subject of mediation during 2009 at User_talk:Cryptic C62/Cold fusion.

Another Proposal

In the "Further Developments" section of the main article is this: "The interest in cold fusion in India had been rekindled earlier that year by a demonstration in Bangalore by Japanese researcher Yoshiaki Arata." What I propose is that at the end of the "Experimental Details" section we add a couple of sentences.

First, we should add something to this existing paragraph: "The most basic setup of a cold fusion cell consists of two electrodes submerged in a solution of palladium and heavy water. The electrodes are then connected to a power source to transmit electricity from one electrode to the other through the solution." We should note that it can take weeks for anomalous heat to begin to appear, and this is known as the loading time, for the palladium to become saturated with deuterium released via electrolysis.

Second, we could mention the SPAWAR co-deposition technique for reducing the loading time; palladium is electroplated out of solution at the same time deuterium gas is being released, allowing the gas to merge with the metal without having to permeate the metal's volume.

Then we add something like this: "Yoshiaki Arata greatly reduced the loading time by demonstrating a new class of CF experiments involving direct pressurization of powdered palladium with deuterium gas, and others have tried this approach also." --and we use this as the reference for it: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physleta.2009.06.061 (This is an RS document which verifies that others have tried Arata's approach, and anyone who accesses that journal article should be able to find a reference to Arata's experiments; so far as I know there are no direct RS-good-enough-for-Wikipedia references for Arata's work, although another reference regarding this approach appears to be http://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.surfcoat.2006.03.062 --#77 on the long list.) It appears that Arata had been doing it for a while, but didn't get widely noticed until 2008. V (talk) 18:45, 27 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

At this point I've only pulled up the abstract, but it seems clear that Arata is talking about excess energies of 2.4 vs 1.8 eV/atom for D2 vice H2 loading. This difference is plain electrochemistry. If it was any kind of fusion, we'd be looking for MeV, not eV. It is perhaps of interest to people making expensive batteries and fuel cells, e.g. for satellite applications. LeadSongDog come howl 17:22, 27 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
hmmmm...how is he calculating that? (Better question; how can it be "electrochemistry" when there is no electricity going through the palladium powder in a direct-pressurization experiment?) Could perhaps he be figuring total number of deuterium atoms pressurized into the metal compared to total anomalous-energy? The obvious simple interpretation of that would be, IF fusion is happening, that only a fraction of all the deuteriums were actually involved in releasing the energy detected. Also, what is the time-frame for deciding what "total" of anomalous energy has been released? If it can happen for weeks or months, then the total would grow.... V (talk) 18:45, 27 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Does the word "fusion" even appear in the paper? It's not in the abstract. Electrochemistry involves processes that happen one electron at a time, including the simple ionization and recombination of H2. See doi:10.1021/j100155a010 for example.LeadSongDog come howl 19:47, 27 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Your attempts to confuse the issue will get you nowhere. There is no water involved in the gas pressurization experiments. And the abstract does have this as its last sentence: "The sample charged with D2 also showed significantly positive output energy in the second phase after the deuteride formation." (my emphasis). Do remember that the title of the article mentions "anomalous effects", and that last abstract-sentence is precisely about an anomalous effect (energy production). That word "after" that I emphasized means that the chemistry is done. So, if not fusion (and of course the authors could not use that word; the article wouldn't have been published in that RS journal with that word in it, and you know it!), what other sources of energy would you care to propose, to explain energy that appears when deuterium is pressured into palladium powder, and not when ordinary hydrogen is used? 17:07, 28 November 2009 (UTC)
This article should probably not be discussed in an article on cold fusion since the authors do not appear to be claiming that fusion is taking place. In other words, the word "after" does not clearly indicate that chemical reactions are done. In any event, Arata is not an author, so this article does not do much to document the Arata work. Olorinish (talk) 20:26, 28 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Olorinish, your own feeble attempts to confuse the issue will also get you nowhere. I said nothing about Arata being an author of this article; I said Arata's work is REFERENCED by that article. Why do you suppose the authors of this article did that? Simply because Arata was first to find anomalous energy in that sort of experiment! This article's reference is the RS that Arata actually did earlier experiments along these lines. I don't care in the slightest that this article doesn't talk about fusion; Arata talked about it plenty, even if all such talk has been restricted to sources that Wikipedia calls "non-RS". How about we allow one of those references to Arata's work, if you don't like this one? (No? Fine; this one is still RS enough!) V (talk) 16:08, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I was not "attempting" to confuse the issue. In fact, I think it was impolite of Objectivist to suggest I was acting in bad faith. In any event, I don't see how my comments made anything more confusing. Authors hinting that they have produced fusion (by mentioning Arata's work) is far different from authors asserting that they have produced fusion. Since we are building an encyclopedia, we should be very careful about representing sources accurately. If a document link is inserted in a way that supports claims of cold fusion, whether the article "doesn't talk about fusion" is a big deal, at least in my view. Olorinish (talk) 17:03, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You ARE attempting to confuse the issue when you say nonsense like "this article should probably not be discussed in an article on cold fusion since the authors do not appear to be claiming that fusion is taking place" --and the reason I say that is simple: We have plenty of references in the article to things that don't talk about fusion taking place. Just look in the region of the very first paragraph in the main article and you will see links to heavy water, pathological science, calorimeter, electrolysis, neutrons, tritium, and US Department of Energy. It is not vital that something specifically mention "fusion" (or "cold fusion") to be relevant to the CF article! --and the proof is in that (easily extended) list I just presented. Next, the CF situation breaks down into two main parts. First, there are the reports of anomalous energy production in experiments that use deuterium instead of ordinary hydrogen. Second, there is the interpretation that fusion is responsible for the anomalous energy. This RS article in Physics Letters A is certainly about the first part of the CF situation. And the fact that it references the work of Arata, who has forthrightly connected pressurized-deuterium experiments to fusion, gives us an indirect link to the second part of the CF situation. That should be more than sufficient to any neutral Wikipedia editor. Arata's work is not "too recent to be mentionable"; this Phys Letters A article is appropriate secondary-RS for it, and that's the main reason for including it. V (talk) 18:03, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Facts can be supportive of a claim without the messenger having a bias either way. They can also be relevant, pertinent, significant, what have you, irrespective. Furthermore, references in wikipedia are used for the verification of pieces of information in the article, sentence by sentence. Unless the sentence is specifically about the opinion of the author referenced, the author's opinion -- or lack thereof -- does not determine -- or speak to -- whether said reference verifies the sentence. (Or, for that matter, whether it meets the WP:RS criteria for that usage.) That is what matters. Looking for opinions is not supported by WP policies and seems to me like it would unnecessarily introduce risk of bias to otherwise objective reasoning. In sum, I believe that V has made his point clear and is correct. Kevin Baastalk 21:01, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

[unindent] Given that there have been no other comments in this section for more than a week, the changes suggested here will likely be posted to the main article in the near future. V (talk) 14:22, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The changes described above would give undue weight to the Kitamura link, considering that the link does not assert that fusion is taking place. Maybe if that line of research is on the increase, it would make sense ("At least 3 groups are currently investigating fusion induced without electrochemical implantation..."), but I don't see evidence of that happening. Keep in mind that we can afford to wait; if that method produces clear evidence of nuclear reactions, someone will report on it and at that time this article can link to it. Olorinish (talk) 14:50, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Just because you claim "undue weight" does not mean the claim is true. Prove it --and please get over your silly notion that every reference of this article must mention "fusion". Please DO remember that the purpose of the link is to provide evidence that Arata's experiment actually took place. The text I proposed talks about others imitating Arata's experiment; even if Kitamura's group had not found anomalous energy, their experiment would still have been an imitation of Arata's! V (talk) 19:01, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The reason I said that it would be undue weight is that this article is titled "Cold fusion" and the Kitamura link does not provide any real information about cold fusion. Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of facts; the goal is to help readers. You imply that it is important to inform readers about the Arata experiment, but I don't see why that is the case. He had a demonstration in front of some reporters, but didn't give any evidence that nuclear reactions were happening. As far as I can tell, he did not show an article with evidence for nuclear reactions yet. Has he done so? Olorinish (talk) 20:50, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The "evidence" you claim didn't exist was the production of anomalous energy. Arata claimed the logical source was fusion, and whether or not he is correct in that interpretation, it suffices to be relevant to this article (which mostly is about claims of production of anomalous energy and fusion-as-explanation), especially since the anomalous energy production was replicated by Kitamura's team. I see you haven't got over the silly notion that somehow everything relevant to cold fusion must actually talk about cold fusion. WRONG. According to you, then, we need to delete from the article references to such things as electrolysis and calorimeter. Wrong again. Background information is almost always about something other than the topic that needs the background information, and the two Wikipedia references just mentioned are appropriate background information for ordinary cold fusion experiments. But Arata has specified something altogether different, and therefore different background information becomes exactly as relevant, for his experiment. It would be Original Research or Synthesis for an editor here to come up with some alternate CF experiment and describe it, but Arata has already done that OR/S, and therefore we are free to report that. However, we are also limited with regard to Reliable Sources, and the only RS currently available, that Arata did his experiment, is this Kitamura article. (I find it humorous/ironic that the reference inside the excellently-RS Kitamura article, to Arata's experiment, is not considered RS by Wikipedia!) Regardless of whether or not Kitamura mentions fusion, he does describe the general kind of experiment that Arata performed (background information!) Finally, of the edits I proposed at the start of this section, only one sentence is about Arata's experiment. If that qualifies as "undue weight" in an article considered over-long by some editors, then you have a strange way of measuring "weight". V (talk) 15:07, 11 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've added the first parts of the proposed change; nobody posted any objections to them. The last part I'll hold off for a bit; the text I just added probably needs an associated reference and possibly a tweak. Unfortunately, my past attempts at adding references failed miserably; there is some trick to it that I don't yet know. V (talk) 18:06, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it does need a link, and the "last part" you mention. Objectivist, in the future please make related edits at the same time so peoeple can evaluate the full point you are trying to make. Olorinish (talk) 18:37, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Even without the last part, about Arata's experiment, the text I added is relevant. There is no other place in the article that mentions "loading time" (not that uses that phrasing, anyway). Arata's experiment is, basically, an alternate route to reducing the loading time, so text about it can be added any time after the first part is stabilized with a reference (or even two!). V (talk) 19:11, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The first sentence of the added text is asserts the disputed claim of anomalous heat as fact, which is NPOV. The whole added text is completely unreferenced, which would need to be fixed. --Noren (talk) 14:53, 29 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You have a point; I forgot that sometimes no excess heat ever appears in some of the experiments. Unreliable excess heat production has been, as we know, a major problem. Reliability has improved in recent years, but excess heat production is as yet still not a certain thing, in the typical electrolysis experiment. (On the other hand, the SPAWAR codeposition variation may in fact be very reliable, if they can claim excess heat observed after only a day.) I will tweak the added text. V (talk) 16:39, 29 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Some RS and Non-RS news

http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/12/update-from-latest-cold-fusion.html Just in case anyone around here wants to keep up on the latest claims made in the field, heh. I see on that linked page a comment by Jed Rothwell that permission has been obtained for the Kitamura paper discussed elsewhere on this page, originally published in Physics Letters A, to become available at his lenr/canr site. http://l...-c....org/acrobat/KitamuraAanomalouse.pdf (you will have to replace some of the dots in the link to get around the blacklist imposed by the anti-CFers.) I'm pretty sure that an article that is RS when published in Physics Letters A does not become less RS when legally posted elsewhere; perhaps a hole in the blacklist can be made to allow general Wikipedia access to this article? Anyway, I took the opportunity to look into it to see exactly how it references Arata's work (where did he publish his claims?) There appears to be a Japanese "Journal of [the] High Temperature Society" --does anyone know anything about the extent to which it qualifies as RS? V (talk) 19:19, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Good to see you saw it first: Almost 50 presentations at ICCF15 in Italy this year.
One way to cite the Kitamura paper so that the link is available on Wikipedia is: Kitamura, A. et al (2009) "Anomalous effects in charging of Pd powders with high density hydrogen isotopes" Physics Letters A 373(35):3109-12 doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2009.06.061
I was particularly impressed with ICCF-15 presentations on the ENEA-Brookhaven-NRL x-ray diffraction study looking for phase changes but finding rapid loading-unloading at the cathode surface, Miles & Fleischmann's new fishtank calorimeter, and Hagelstein's outright admission that laser difference frequency controls excess power output. It was good to see Hagelstein collaborating with McKubre as well.
Does anyone believe those three sources are out of the mainstream? 99.55.162.180 (talk) 17:55, 22 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
"I'm pretty sure that an article that is RS when published in Physics Letters A does not become less RS when legally posted elsewhere." Good luck convincing the anti-CF-ers of that. Kevin Baastalk 18:27, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I understand your point, but the goal here is to allow readers to access the body of the article, rather than only a mere abstract. That's where the background information I previously discussed is to be found, after all. What we could do is include both links, the first (to abstract) to show that the article is Reliably Sourced, and the second to allow access to its body. It would be interesting to see what sort of ridiculous objections might be offered in response. V (talk) 21:24, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Confirmation of neutrons with the CR-39 method was nice, as were all three of the opening presentations. It's also fantastic to see two days go by without anyone claiming any of it is out of the mainstream. I hope that holds up in edits to the article, but I'll leave that up to more experienced editors of the page, for now. 99.34.78.67 (talk) 18:00, 24 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Why would anyone pay that much attention? It's just a collection of primary sources: conference presentations.LeadSongDog come howl 18:22, 24 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This article is filled with primary sources, from the popular press even, but only in support of the point of view that cold fusion is bunk. Sources suggesting it isn't have been blacklisted by administrators, and sources suggesting that there is still some controversy are not represented in this article anywhere near in proportion to the extent they appear in the popular and academic press. 99.34.78.67 (talk) 19:53, 24 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
All the ICCF-15 abstracts (in one 9.6 MB PDF) are easier to text-search through. They indicate Fleischmann apparently approves of the Pd-B cathodes of Miles and Imam. Also, what does it mean that Hagelstein has been doing laser experiments for two years (p. 8)? 99.34.78.67 (talk) 00:28, 25 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Is Elsevier considered a reliable source on Wikipedia ? I would think so. It has now published an encyclopedia of electrochemical power source, and Steve Krivit has contributed an article on cold fusion in it, another proof that he should be considered as a reliable source too. See his blog on new energy times.com Pcarbonn (talk) 17:25, 25 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It is not reliable just because its from Elsevier - some Elsevier journals are RS, some are not. --Kim D. Petersen (talk) 19:38, 25 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Leaked DIA document

optical character recognition

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Defense Intelligence Agency

Defense Analysis Report

DIA-08-0911-003 13 November 2009

Technology Forecast: Worldwide Research on Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Increasing and Gaining Acceptance

Scientists worldwide have been quietly investigating low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) for the past 20 years. Researchers in this controversial field are now claiming paradigm-shifting results, including generation of large amounts of excess heat, nuclear activity and transmutation of elements.1'2'3 Although no current theory exists to explain all the reported phenomena, some scientists now believe quantum-level nuclear reactions may be occurring. DIA assesses with high confidence that if LENR can produce nuclear-origin energy at room temperatures, this disruptive technology could revolutionize energy production and storage, since nuclear reactions release millions of times more energy per unit mass than do any known chemical fuel.4'5

Background

In 1989, Marlin Fleisch mann and Stanley Pons announced thai their electrochemical experiments had produced excess energy under standaid temperature and pressure conditions.ft Because they could not explain this physical phenomenon based on known chemical reactions, they suggested the excess heat could be nuclear in origin. However, their experiments did not show the radiation or radioactivity expected from a nuclear reaction. Many researchers attempted to replicate the results and failed. As a result, the physics community disparaged their work as lacking credibility, and the press mistakenly dubbed it "cold fusion." Related research also suffered from the negative publicity of cold fusion for the past 20 years, but many scientists believed something important was occurring and continued their research with little or no visibility. For years, scientists were intrigued by the possibility of producing large amounts of clean energy through LENR, and now this research has begun to be accepted in the scientific community as reproducible and legitimate.

Source Summary Statement

This assessment is based on analysis of a wide body of intelligence reporting, most of which is open source information including scientific briefings, peer-reviewed technical journals, international scientific conference proceedings, interviews with scientific experts and technical media. While there is little classified data on this topic due to the S&T nature of the information and the lack of collection, DIA judges that these open sources generally provide the most reliable intelligence available on this topic. The information in this report has been corroborated and reviewed by U.S. technology experts who are familiar with the data and the international scientists involved in this work.

Although much skepticism remains, LENR programs are receiving increased support worldwide, including state sponsorship and funding from major corporations.7'8'9'1(1 DIA assesses that Japan and Italy are leaders in the field, although Russia, China, Israel, and India1 ' are devoting significant resources to this work in the hope of finding a new clean

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energy source. Scientists worldwide have been reporting anomalous excess heat 4 and transmutation.15',fi'17

Y. Iwamura1!i at Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries first detected transmutation of elements when permeating deuterium through palladium metal in 2002. Researchers led by Y. Arata at Osaka University in Japan and a team led by V.Violante at ENEA in Italy (the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and the Environment—the equivalent to the U.S. Department of Energy)20 also made transmutation claims.

Additional indications of transmutation have been reported in China, Russia, France, Ukraine, and the United States.21'22

Researchers in Japan, Italy, Israel, and the United States have all reported detecting

• Chinese researchers described LENR experiments in 1991 that generated so much heat that they caused an explosion that was not believed to be chemical in origin.""

• Japanese, French, and U.S. scientists also have reported rapid, high-energy LENR releases leading to laboratory explosions, according to scientific journal articles from 1992to2009.26'27

• Israeli scientists reported in 2008 that they have applied pulsating electrical currents to their LENR experiments to increase the excess energy production.28

• As of January 2008, India was reportedly considering restarting its LENR program after 14 years of dormancy.29

U.S. LENR researchers also have reported results that support the phenomena of At the March 2009 American Chemical Society annual meeting, researchers at U.S. Navy SPAWAR Pacific reported excess energy,33 nuclear particles,34 and

• A research team at the U.S. company SRI International has been studying the electrochemistry and kinetics of LENR since the early 1990's, reporting excess heat and helium production.38

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• In May 2002, researchers at JET Thermal in Massachusetts reported excess heat and optimal operating points for LENR manifolds.39

• Researchers at the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center in California first reported anomalous power correlated with Helium-4 production in 1996.40

Although no one theory currently exists to explain all the observed LENR phenomena, some scientists now believe these nuclear reactions may be small-scale deuterium fusion occurring in a palladium metal lattice.41 ■42"43 Some others still believe the heat evolution can be explained by non-nuclear means. Another possibility is that LENR may involve an intricate combination of fusion and fission triggered by unique chemical and physical configurations on a nanoscale level.44 45 This body of research has produced evidence that nuclear reactions may be occurring under conditions not previously believed possible. Recent results suggest these anomalous LENR phenomena can be triggered by various energetic stimuli (electric and magnetic fields, acoustic waves, infrared, lasers)4r'" 47 and may have a variety of operational modes.

Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear fusion as currently understood occurs only in the core of stars, in nuclear weapons, in high temperature plasmas, or in inertially confined high-energy collisions. Scientists for years have attempted to harness nuclear fusion through high-temperature plasma techniques but have been unable to produce moie energy output than supplied. Fusion was once thought to be the answer to the world's future clean energy needs, but after 60 years of research still has yet to live up to this promise. "Hot" fusion researchers do not believe fusion can occur at near-room temperatures based on the Coulomb barrier that repels like nuclear charges and have dismissed much of the "cold fusion" research conducted since 1989. As a result, such research has received limited funding and support over the past 20 years. Potential Applications of LENR: The Technology Surprise Factor

LENR's potential as a future clean energy source is still unknown. However, recent results indicating nuclear activity and transmutation are intriguing and pose the following questions:

• If the excess heat from these experiments could be captured and intensified, could LENR be used as a power source for engines, batteries, or other equipment?

• If nuclear particles could be generated and transmute elements, could LENR be used to mitigate hazardous waste or to neutralize weapons of mass destruction?48

• If the various modes of energy production could be identified and optimized, could LENR be used to create designer materials or critical resources that are in short supply or serve as a tailored, "dial-a-mode" power source?

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• If rapid, explosive energy output can occur in one or several modes, could LENR serve as a new high-energy-density explosive?

International LENR research was highlighted in April 2009 on a U.S. television program focused on the 20th anniversary of the Fleischman and Pons announcement.49 Many U.S. researchers are collaborating with foreign scientists, but each team has proprietary aspects of their experiments that are not shared. Because some peer-reviewed journals are reluctant to review or publish LENR data due to past controversies, most results are presented at international conferences, and foreign scientists have access to much of the U.S. data. In addition, U.S. experts have been invited to brief on LENR to nuclear institutes in India,50 Belgium,5 and South Korea,52 and a reciprocal visit by South Koreans to SPA WAR Pacific to initiate collaboration is planned. This relatively free flow of information increases the likelihood of a technology breakthrough—as well as the potential for technology surprise—by an international team, especially those from countries that are devoting more resources to this research than is the United States, and are supported with major corporate funding (Mitsubishi, Toyota, and Honda in Japan; Pirelli in Italy).53

The Experiments

Most LENR experiments involve electrodes immersed in solutions of metal salts such as lithium chloride or lithium sulfate, with heavy water substituted for natural water. Electric current is sent through the experimental apparatus, in most instances producing excess heat. This effect occurs over long periods (several hundreds of hours), and many early experimenters achieved negative results because they were unaware of this incubation period. Israeli researchers used pulsating electric fields to increase heat production. The application of magnetic fields has been shown to stimulate increased heat and power. Usually one of the electrodes is palladium, because it has a high ability to adsorb (hold on the surface) and absorb deuterium atoms in its metal matrix. Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen that undergoes fusion in nuclear weapons at high temperatures and pressures; it also undergoes fusion and is one of the basic building blocks of the heavier elements formed in stars. The Navy SPA WAR experiments used a unique technique to place the palladium atoms in the heavy-water solution and to codeposit palladium and deuterium, which rapidly increases the deuterium "loading" necessary for the LENR phenomena to occur.

A Notional LENR Electrochemical Cell (Left) and a French LENR Apparatus After an Unexplained Explosion (Right)54

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Who's Hot in Cold Fusion?

The countries with the most advanced LENR programs are Japan, Italy, and Israel. In addition, Russia, France, China, South Korea, and India are spending significant resources on LENR research. The following are among the most notable effoits:

• In Japan, Iwamura at Mitsubishi has been studying transmutation of elements in LENR experiments and multilayer palladium (Pd) complexes. His team includes the Japanese Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute and SPring-8 at Riken. Kitamura and other researchers at Kobe University are investigating Pd nanopowders and Helium-4 ash. Arata at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has worked on catalysts containing nanopalladium. Yamaguchi at Kobe noted transmutation using multilayered Pd samples. Mizuno at Hokkaido is studying transmutations and heat generation. A team led by Hioki at Toyota is investigating deuterium gas permeation through Pd as well as transmutations. Toriyabe at Tohoku University is developing charged-particle detectors for LENR. Kasagi is looking at electron and ionic screening in LENR effects.

• Vittorio Violante, a leader in the field of Pd metallurgy and the role of surface effects in LENR, heads a team at ENEA, Frascati Rome, (the Italian equivalent to the U.S. Department of Energy (performing LENR experiments. A team led by Francesco Celani at INFN that includes STMicroelectronics and Pirelli labs is studying deuterium migration in nanocoated Pd for fast-loading and anomalous heat effects. The Italian Physical and Chemical Societies are supporting LENR research in Italy.

• Srinivasan in India noted that India is restarting its LENR program: the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre had several groups working on LENR from 1989 to the early 1990s. Sinha at IISc in Bangalore is studying models for fusion in metal deutendes. Lakshmanan at Saveetha College is exploring fusion in sodium metal solutions.

• Andrei Lipson and other researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences and scientists in Tomsk are studying the emission of charged particles during the use of electron beams to excite palladium/deuterium (Pd/D) and titanium/deuterium (Ti/D) targets. Karabut and others at LUCH also are conducting LENR experiments. A Dubna team led by Gareev is studying nuclear fusion during cavitation and molecular transitions. LUCH's Savvatimova, Dash, Muromtsev, and Artamonov also aie conducting LENR experiments. Adamenko and Vysotskii of Kiev aie looking for magnetic monopoles in LENR experiments. Kurchatov-based scientist Goiyachev is investigating LENR for alternative energy sources and for mitigating radioactive waste.

• Xing Z. Li at Tshinghua University claims 20 institutions in China are investigating LENR with governmental support. Tian's team at Cahnchun University of Science and Technology is investigating laser triggering in Pd/D systems. Zhang and other researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have studied Pd-D kinetics in LENR since 1991.

• Israeli scientists at Energetics in Omer have shown that variations in energy output can be increased using variable frequency or pulsed "superwaves" to stimulate LENR effects.

• The French Atomic Energy Agency had an offici al LENR program from 1997 to 1999. EDF also had one for several years. Currently, Jean-Paul Biberian from the Université Marseille and Jacques Dufour at CNAM are working on LENR in France.

• Jan Marwan of Dr. Marwan Chemie in Berlin, Germany, is studying the nano structure of palladium hydride systems. Huke and others from the Technische Universität Berlin are working with Czerski in Poland and Ruprecht in Can;n.l;¡ on olearon sclvuiììiìl; [íK'cIkmiímii^ l'or deuteron fusion.

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Outlook and Implications

If nuclear reactions in LENR experiments are real and controllable, DIA assesses that whoever produces the first commercialized LENR power source could revolutionize energy production and storage for the future. The potential applications of this phenomenon, if commercialized, are unlimited. The anomalous LENR effects seen in these metal lattices containing deuterium may also have as-yet undetermined nanotechnology implications. LENR could serve as a power source for batteries that could last for decades, providing power for electricity, sensors, military operations, and other applications in remote areas, including space. LENR could also have medical applications for disease treatment, pacemakers, or other equipment. Because nuclear fusion releases 10 million times more energy per unit mass than does liquid transportation fuel, the military potential of such high-energy-density power sources is enormous. And since the U.S. military is the largest user of liquid fuel for transportation, LENR power sources could produce the greatest transformation of the battlefield for U.S. forces since the transition from horsepower to gasoline power.

Prepared by: Beverly Barnhart, DIA/DI, Defense Warning Office. With contributions from: Dr. Patrick McDaniel, University of New Mexico; Dr. Pam Mosier-Boss, U.S. Navy SPAWAR/Pacific; Dr. Michael McKubre, SRI International; Mr. Lawrence Forsley, JWK International; and Dr. Louis DeChiaro, NSWC/Dahlgren. Coordinated with DIA/DRI, CPT, DWO, DOE/IN, US Navy SPAWAR/Pacific and U.S. NSWC/Dahlgren, VA.

Boekris, John. "The History of the Discovery of Transmutation ai Texas A&M University," paper presented at tlie 10th Internationa] Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF). Cambridge. MA. 2003.

14th International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF), Washington, DC, 10-15 August 2008.

1 The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom determines the identity of the chemical element. Nuclear transmutation occurs when the number of protons in the nucleus is changed by adding or removing protons or converting them toother nuclear particles. Thus transmutation changes one chemical element into another through a nuclear process.

4 Benedict. M.. T. Pigford. and H. Levi. "Nuclear Chemical Engineering." McGrau Itili .Series in Nuclear Engineering, 1981.

?Hecker, S., "Plutonium, A Historical Overview." Challenges in Plutonium Science, Vol. l.Los Alamos. National Laboratory. No. 26, 2000.

6 Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Vol. 261, 263, 287, pp 187, 301, 293.

7 DeChiaro. Louis. "Recent Progress in Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, "briefing prepared by NAVSEA, Dahlgren, for DDR&E, 28 August, 2009.

s Iwamura, Yashiro, et al., "Transmutation Reactions Induced by D: Gas Permeation Through Pd Complexes (Pd/CaO/Pd), "14"' International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF). Washington. DC, 10-15 August 2008.

9 Hioki, Tatsumì, et al.. "Influence of Deuterium Gas Permeation on Surface Elemental Change of Ion-Implanted Pd," 14th International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF), Washington, DC, 10-15 August 2008.

10Celani. Francesco, et al.. "Deuteron Eleciromigraiioii in Thin Pd Wires Coated with Nano-Particles: Evidence for Ultra-Fast Deuterium Loading and Anomalous. Large Thermal Effects," 14th In te m at i on al Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF). Washington. DC, 10-15 August 2008.

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"Exciting New Scic lid.': Potential Clean Energy." Abstracts. 14 ' International Conference un Condensed Malici" Nuclear Science and Imeni aliona I Conference un Coki Fusion (ICCF). Wasli ingioi), DC. 10-15 August 2008.

12 Mosier-Boss. et al. 'Triple Tracks in CR-39 as ilie Restili of Pd/D Co-deposition: Evidence of Energetic Neutrons," Naturwissenschaften. 96. 2009. 135-142.

II Mosier-Boss. et al., Navy SP AW AR briefing. American Chemical Society annua! meeting. March 2009.

14 "Exciting New Science: Potential Clean Energy." Abstracts. 14th International Conference on Condensed Mailer Nuclear Science and Ini em aliona I Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF). Washington. DC. 10-15 August 2008.

15 Transmutations only occur when nuclear panicles interact and are exchanged io produce different elements.

lfi Iwamura. Yashiro. et al., "Transmutaiion Reaction;, Induced by D2 Cas Permeation Through Pd Complexes (Pd/CaO/Pd) 14th International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF), Washington, DC, 10-15 August 2008.

17 Yamaguchi. Tatsuya. et al.. "Investigation of Nuclear Transinuiaiion Using Muliilavcivd CaO/X/Pd Samples Under Deuterium Permeation." 14th Internal i on al Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF). Washington. DC, 10-15 August 2008.

'"iwamura, Yashiro. et al., "Elemental Analysis of Pd Complexes: Effects of D, Cas Permeation. "Japan Journal of Applied Physics, Vol 41. 2002, pp. 4642-4650.

19 Arata. Y.. "Anomalous Effects in Charging of Pd Powders with High Density ilvdrogen Isotopes," Physics Letters A, 373,2009, pp 3109-3112.

20 Violante, V. et al., "On the Correlation of PdD Alloy Material Properties with the Occurrence of Excess Power." briefing presented at 14thInternational Conference on ColdFusion (ICCF). Washington. DC. 10-15 August 2008.

21 Prelas. M.A..et al.. "A review of Transmutation and Clustering in Low Energy Nuclear Reactions." briefing presented at Vice Chancellor for Research Seminar on LENR. University of Missouri. May 2009.

" Briefings presented at Navy SPAWAR San Diego. LENR meeting, 4-5 August. 2009.

21 Mosier-Boss. et al. "Triple Tracks in CR-39as the Result of Pd/D Co-deposition: Evidence of Energetic Neutrons," Naturwissenschaften, 96, 2009, 135-142.

24Mizuno. Tadahiko. "Neutron Emission Induced by Nuclear Reaction in Condensed Matter." briefing presented at Vice Chancellor for Research Seminar on LENR. University of Missouri. May 2009.

"' Zhang, el al.. "On ihe Explosion in a DcLilcriiiin/PalladiLim Electrolytic System." Third Inicrnaitonal conference on Cold Fusion. 1992. Nagoya. Japan.

26 Biberian. Jean-Paul. "Unexplained Explosion During an Electrolysis Experiment in an Open Cell Mass flow Calorimeter." Journal of Condensed Matter, Nuclear Science. 2 (2009) pp. 1-6.

27 Zhang, et al.. "On the Explosion in aDeuierium/Palladiuin electrolytic System." Third International conference on Cold Fusion. 1992. Nagoya. Japan.

20 Lesin. et al.. "Ultrasonica!!y-Exciteci Electrolysis Experiments at Energetic Technologies." Energetics Technologies. Omer. Israel, briefing presented ai 14"' International Conference on ColdFusion (ICCF). Washington. DC. 10-15 August 2008

Jayaraman. K.S.. "Cold Fusion is Hot Again." Nature India. 2008. Published online 17 Jan 2008. http://www.lenr- eaiir.org/aeroha i/.lay animai iKcokHusion.pdf

III Mosier-Boss. et al., multiple briefings presented ai Navy SPAWAR Pacific. August 4-5. 2009. 11 McKubre. Michael. "Studies of the Fleischinann-Pons Effect at SRI International." briefing presented at Vice Chancellor for Research Seminar'on LENR. University of Missouri. May 2009.

12 Spzak. Stan, et al.. "Evidence of Nuclear Reactions in the Pd Lattice." Naturwissenschaften. 92. 2005. 394-397. ' Szpak. Stan, et al.. "Thermal Behavior of Polarized Pd/D Electrodes Prepared by Co-Deposition." Thermochimica Acto. 410, 2004. 101-107.

14 Mosier-Boss. et al.. "Triple Tracks in CR-39 as the Result of Pd/D Co-deposition: Evidence of Energetic Neutrons." Naturwissenschaften. 96. 2009. 135-142.

"1= Spzak. Stan, et al.. "Evidence of Nuclear Reactions in the Pd Lattice." Naturwissenschaften. 92. 2005. 394-397. y' The identity of a chemical element is determined by the number of protons in its atomic nucleus. Transmutation occurs when one chemical element is changed into another one. This normally occurs during radioactive decay, bul can occur from any number of nuclear processes that add or subtract protons from the atomic nucleus.

'"' Mosier-Boss. et al.. Navy SPAWAR briefing. American Chemical Society annual meeting. March 2009.

""McKubre. Michael. "Studies of the Fleischmann-Pons Effect at SRI International." briefing presented at Vice Chancellor for Research Seminar: Excess Ileal and Panicle Tracks from Deuterium-Loaded Palladium. University of Missouri, 29 May 2009.

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Swartz. Mi telle]], et al., "The Impaci of Heavy Water {D:0) o it Nickel-Lid n Water Cold Fusion Systems." Proceedings of the 9'1' lutein aliona I Conference on Cold Fusion. ICCF-9. Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. May 19-24, 2002. Beijing, China, Tsinghua University Press. 2003. pp 335-342.

40 Miles. Melvin, et al.. -Anomalous Effects in Deuterated Systems," Final Report. NAWCWPNS TP 8302. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division. 1996.

41 Hagelstein. Peter and Ir fan Chaudhary. "Modeling Excess ileal in the Fleischmann-Pons Experiment." briefing presented at Vice Chancellor for Research Seminaron LENR. University of Missouri. May 2009.

42 Olenik. V.P. and Yu.D. Arepjev. "Physical Mechanism of Nuclear Reactions at Low Energies." National Technical University of Ukraine. Kiev Polytechnic Institute

41 Srivastava. Y.N., O. Panella. A. Widom. "Instability of the Perturbation Theoretical Chiomodynamic Vacuum." LANL web site. arXiv:0811.3293vl 20 Nov 2008.

44 Hagelstein. Peter. MIT. Briefing. Navy SPAWARPacific, August 2009..

4:> McDaniel. Patrick. "Electrochemicaliy Induced Nuclear Reactions." briefing, presented at Navy SPAWAR Pacific, August 2009.

46 Sinha. K.P. and A.Meulenberg. "Laser Stimulation of Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions in Deuleraied Palladium." Current Science, Vol.91, No.7, 10 October, 2006, pp. 907-912

47 Lesin. et al., "Ultrasonieally-Exciied Electrolysis Experiments at Energetic Technologies." Energetics Technologies. Omer. Israel, briefing presented al I -i"1 Internationa! Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCFi. Washington. DC, 10-15 August 2008.

4HTsvetkov.. S.A., "Possibility of Using Cold Fusion for Nuclear Waste Products Transmutation." !0tb International Conference on Cold Fusion. Cambridge, MA. 2003. from LENR-CANR.org website.

  • ' htp://wwrw.cbsnews.coiii/stones/2009/04/17/60ininLiles/inaiii-l9S2167.shlinl?lag-conletuMain:conteiifßody

50 Personal correspondence. Dr. Michael McKubre. SRI International. October. 2009. "' Forsley. L.. "Lattice Assisted Nuclear Reactions: Overview of an Unexpected Phenomena." First Colloquium on Nano-Nuclear Science FUniversiie catholique de Louvain. Belgium, May 4-5. 2009. "2 Personal correspondence. Mr. Lawrence Forsley. JWK International. October. 2009.

51 In Japan, the three major automakers are supporting LENR research. In Italy, Pirelli Labs is one of many corporate and governmental sponsors of LENR research.

54 Biberian. Jean-Paul. "Unexplained Explosion During an Electrolysis Experiment in an Open Cell Mass flow Calorimeter." Journal of Condensed Matter, Nuclear Science. 2 (2009) pp. 1-6.

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I propose adding text from the leaked U.S. government secondary source Barnhart et al (2009) "Technology Forecast: Worldwide Research on Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Increasing and Gaining Acceptance," Defense Analysis Report DIA-08-0911-003, U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been verified as authentic by experienced editors of this article. In particular, I propose adding the material in the first yellow box, the first paragraph after the second yellow box, the bold statement on page 3, the contents of the third yellow box on page 3, the contents of the fourth yellow box on page 4, the entirety of page 5, and the first sentence at the top of page 6, all sourced to the DIA document. Any objections? 99.34.78.67 (talk) 00:28, 25 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

According to [reliable sources], "Wikipedia articles should rely on reliable, published sources..." Has this been published? Olorinish (talk) 01:47, 25 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yes. 99.34.78.67 (talk) 02:16, 25 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I think that does not count, alas. Your link does not show the DIA document was formally published by the DIA. It is merely a copy of an escaped/leaked document--essentially an informal publication. There is no way the sticklers-for-formality around here could accept that. V (talk) 16:12, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Has the 2004 DOE report been "published" ? It is used in our article, anyway, so I would say that we can use this DIA document too. Pcarbonn (talk) 17:20, 25 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The DOE published it in its website with a press release[1]. The report and the comments of the director of the agency were covered by several newspapers and science magazines before and after the release. --Enric Naval (talk) 05:14, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
On page 5, it says Israel is one of the three most advanced countries studying the technology. The particular research facility specified has made claims of 2,500% excess power.[2] 99.191.74.146 (talk) 12:51, 26 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I believe the Israeli company claiming these numbers are the same guys that attempt to cure HIV and other illnesses with cold fusion waves. See this article and this on Dardik. The fact that they use this source in their document is proof that the DIA report is poorly reviewed. What an embarassment. But that's beside the point. An unplubished DIA report is not RS. PCarbonn's point about equating this with the DOE review is missing the point on several levels; the DOE review was publicly published, widely anticipated and widely reported by the NYT, Washington Post and other highly reliable sources. It's not even the same class of source as the DIA document. Phil153 (talk) 13:34, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Do you think any of the proposed additions from the document should be made, Phil? How about in the context of, "A 2009 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report said...?" 99.22.94.58 (talk) 18:48, 26 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
IMO, at most, we could use it to attribute an opinion/POV, and a fairly limited one as things stand - as lacking any evidence that it is out of the "draft" stage, we can only presume that the opinion is limited solely to the authors. Furthermore as I can tell it contains no verifiable quotes by any of the authors so even doing that would be sketchy. And when did we use "draft"s as sources? I can't think of a way to legitimately justify it right now. maybe when/if it gets published. Kevin Baastalk 16:23, 26 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Where are you seeing the word "draft"? Aren't leaks like this the only way any sensitive but unclassified DIA reports ever get published? Then again, I can't see why this one would be sensitive, unless the TSA is worried about people sneaking codeposition apparatus on planes, and that just isn't practical, even with 25x battery power. Shorting the batteries against something flammable would be more potentially damaging. 99.22.94.58 (talk) 21:47, 26 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I don'tknow about you, but i rarely bother to write "draft" on my drafts. nonetheless, o long a it is subjet to being edited before being published, i.e. o long as it is not published, it is a draft. ofcoursee many type of documents, such as minutes of meetings, are never edited and "publihing" amount to being ditributed to those in attendance. but this is not one of those type of documents. Kevin Baastalk 14:26, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
How do you know you don't know about me? Leaked DIA documents often end up taking a special historical significance. 99.27.201.92 (talk) 06:44, 29 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Is http://superwavefusion.com in New Jersey the same as, different from, or a part of Energetics in Omer, Israel? 99.22.94.58 (talk) 21:07, 26 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I found the answer in a 2 second google search. Dardik is involved in both companies. The articles I linked above have further information. Phil153 (talk) 05:51, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
What do you think the actual answer is, then? Same organization, different organization, part (if part, which is the parent?), or some other form of merger? Are you going to answer the question above about whether the material should be included attributed to the DIA? 99.27.134.160 (talk) 16:30, 30 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Nature Magazine and the non-importance of failed replications

Introduction: In this opinion, Nature magazine makes fun of the skeptics. It tells the fictitious story of a Professor Madeline Hou who tours the country with an experimental demonstration of the failure of cold fusion; the problem is, the last time she conducts the demonstration, it ends us with an explosion, releasing energy "orders of magnitude higher than the total from any previous ‘controlled fusion’ experiment." It concludes : "With new energy sources critically important, the Department of Energy has scheduled its attempt to replicate Hou’s demonstration at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. "

This echoes what the DOE said in 1989: "Even a single short but valid cold fusion period would be revolutionary.(...) any good experiment that fails to find cold fusion can be discounted as merely not working for unknown reasons" Our article would be better if it included this important statement. It could be inserted in the experimental section. Alternatively, we could add a specific section discussing replication, as this is a key issue in the debate, and often misunderstood. Comments welcome.

By the way, many researchers have reported explosions from cold fusion devices : Fleischmann & Pons, in their original paper; Mizuno, Biberian. Mizuno's explosion was from an open cell, excluding the possibility of gas build-up or catastrophic recombination. Pcarbonn (talk) 06:42, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Are you suggesting we should cite a fictitious story to demonstrate the validity of cold fusion? I'm confused. Apart from that, I don't understand why the DOE statement you quoted matters. Perhaps you can clarify. Of course a VALID demonstration of cold fusion would be revolutionary. That's like saying a VALID demonstration of perpetual motion or ESP would be revolutionary. The importance of a VALID cold fusion demonstration is covered in the article already, with text such as These reports raised hopes of a cheap and abundant source of energy in the lead and the "Reaction to the Announcement" section. Phil153 (talk) 07:16, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I can't figure out what that Nature opinion piece is supposed to mean. As for validity, when do we get to add the pairs (and triples, etc.) of independent confirmations of various experiments from the peer-reviewed primary sources? Why have those been objected to? 99.38.149.213 (talk) 07:38, 27 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The Nature piece is from their recurring Futures section. It's a weekly one-page science fiction story, pure and simple: [3]. It's not an editorial, nor even an opinion piece. I would submit that "even a single short but valid observation of the Loch Ness monster would be revolutionary" — but as with cold fusion, the continued absence of evidence is entirely uninteresting. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 09:11, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Related side discussion

I partly agree and partly disagree. Do remember that the CF issue has two components. The first is the generation of heat energy in quantities greater than can be explained by ordinary means. The second is the interpretation that fusion is the event yielding the observed energy. So, we have a great many reliable observations of the first thing. That by itself should be far from "uninteresting"!! It demands a greater depth of research! What we don't have is adequate reliable observations that fusion has been involved. Isn't it logical that if a greater depth of research is conducted, we could perhaps either verify or rule out the hypothesis of fusion-as-explanation? "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." --but what might be said about anyone attempting to interfere with gathering appropriate evidence? By, say, insisting that the two parts of the CF issue must be combined in such a way as to muddy Wikipedia reporting, and consequent communication with potential readers/experimenters? (you talked about "absence of evidence" of what precisely???) V (talk) 16:41, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I don't see how the content of a Wikipedia article should interfere with experiments or evidence-gathering in the real world. In general, research programs and funding decisions are not governed by Wikipedia articles — and we certainly shouldn't be advocating particular research directions. Cold fusion advocates have had twenty years to verify fusion-as-explanation; 'absence of evidence' starts to look suspiciously like 'evidence of absence' after a couple of decades of failure. If they come up with something persuasive it will make it into Wikipedia, but until then it's not our role to Teach the Controversy. Meanwhile, excess heat that might not be from fusion looks to me like the cold fusion's world's answer to irreducible complexity that might not be from the Christian God. I really don't want to get into a religious argument with you. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 20:08, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Then I shall be happy to explain it to you. Some of the people who read Wikipedia are bright young kids who will go on to do great things -- provided they have information to work with that is as complete as possible, and not stifled by chosen-to-be-ignorant/out-of-date POV-pushers (you, for example, prove yourself to be one of them, since you don't know that roughly the last five years of your claimed "couple decades of failure" has been full of successful replications of excess energy production, regardless of whatever has caused it). It is the future experiments of those grown kids that will be affected negatively by such inaccurate/out-of-date/incomplete reporting (kids do not normally have easy access to technical journals) -- some might not even bother to try. And as for your nonsense about "teaching controversy", it is exactly nonsense since this article is already about a controversial subject (therefore both sides need to be presented in excellent detail), and not about taking a well-understood subject and making it controversial. And no, fusion wasn't so super-well-understood that surprises such as muon-catalyzed fusion could not be discovered. How do you know for certain that no other surprises wait to be found? Something is causing excess energy to appear in various deuterium-saturated experiments, and not causing it to appear in equivalent plain-hydrogen experiments. That's the basic fact. Whether or not fusion is involved is unimportant compared to attempts to say, in effect, "The claim that fusion is involved means nobody should bother investigating the basic fact." <--THAT'S the prime stupidity about which I am most strenuously objecting! V (talk) 20:52, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sorry; you were right. I didn't understand your point until you started insulting me. Clearly I agree completely with your Truth, and I know now that we need to protect the children. You don't need to argue any further to persuade me. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 21:08, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
There is no insult in simple truth. You stated, and I quote, "...'absence of evidence' starts to look suspiciously like 'evidence of absence' after a couple of decades of failure." The statement is false, since the last half-decade has not been full of failed experiments. Now, either you didn't know that (in which case saying you were ignorant is simple truth and not an insult), or you were lying outright. If that was true it would technically not be an insult to say you were a liar. (Kind of like calling a female dog a "bitch" --it is precisely the correct terminology, regardless of connotations.) You can see which assumption I made, about your statement, in my previous post. Because I'm well aware that quite a few experts in the field of hot fusion, once they dismissed the idea of cold fusion, never bothered to keep up with experimental developments; ignorance is the more probable explanation for your statement. You are welcome, of course, to correct me by stating you were lying...but I will not stand still while you claim, in essence, that simple truths are inherently insulting. V (talk) 22:09, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Am I ignorant, or am I a liar? Mu. I hope that you someday learn how to interact with people who disagree with you. Until then, please find somewhere else to vent your spleen. (Incidentally, you also seem to be confused about the history of muon-catalyzed fusion. μCF had a sound theoretical basis compatible with existing nuclear physics, and was in fact predicted years before it was observed. You probably ought to be more careful about your research before making extraordinary claims.) I'm done with you. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:30, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Tsk, tsk, your feeble attempt at a rebuttal does not change the fact that you made a false statement --and your failure to provide a third explanation for making that statement only reinforces the validity of the question ("mu" is thus not an applicable response --because if it was applicable, there would be a reason why, that could be explained). In my book, anyone who makes a false statement, and avoids explaining it, deserves short shrift in the politeness department. Not to mention that the people who actually discovered muon catalyzed fusion in action were not immediately aware of that dusty theoretical work; they were indeed surprised by the discovery (even if only temporarily). I do know some of the story, if not all the details. Next, are you not aware that Pons & Fleischmann conducted their original experiments on the speculative basis that perhaps a Quantum-Mechanical version of the classical multi-body-problem might offer another pathway toward low-energy fusion? In their minds, therefore, they had what they thought was a reasonable hypothesis to test. Was their hypothesis taken seriously enough to find theoretical flaws in it? No (nor has most any other proposed explanation). The evidence of the last twenty years suggests that the top theorists were so convinced that the claims were flawed, of excess energy production, that they didn't feel any need to bother with any proposal that fusion might be happening. Now it is of course possible that fusion is not happening in those experiments, but it is extremely improbable, now, that the experimental results, of excess energy production, are still flawed. (It even got published in Physics Letters A as experimental replication, a few months ago.) Some explanation for the phenomenon is therefore required. So, if not fusion, then what? Care to try again, regarding explaining your false statement? V (talk) 23:08, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion for article: I'm not suggesting that we should quote the Nature story. I'm suggesting to include statements explaining that failed replications do not matter, as the Nature story illustrates and as the DOE said in 1989. Our lead section says that the early failures to replicate were key elements in casting cold fusion as pathological science in the 1990's: this was a wrong argument, as was the theoretical one, but it is still used today very often by unreliable sources. As for VALID experiment, what do you think of the American Chemical Society's statement in March 2009: "Researchers are reporting compelling new scientific evidence for the existence of low energy nuclear reactions" ? (Their statement was reported in many other journals, giving it both the notability and reliability it needs to be included in the lead, in my opinion.) Pcarbonn (talk) 08:31, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The 2009 ACS meeting is already mentioned in three parts of the article: in the lead (in present footnote 11), in a later paragraph, and in a video link at the bottom. Even so, Pcarbonn wants to include more discussion of it in order to make the wikipedia article more pro-CF. For those who may not know, this is the kind of activity that led to his ban a year ago. Olorinish (talk) 15:06, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
For those who may not know, Olorinish is right when he describes the ban as having been the result of a content dispute. Shame! When will the article reflect the fact that the peer-reviewed literature hasn't seen an article critical of cold fusion for over five years, and in that same span of time has seen dozens of independent replications and other articles from the same point of view that anyone who has ever been banned from this article tried to represent in the article? 99.25.115.5 (talk) 19:38, 27 December 2009 (UTC) corrected by: 99.27.201.92 (talk) 06:55, 29 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Am I right to conclude from the discussion above that the 2004 DOE quote ("Even a single short but valid cold fusion period would be revolutionary. any good experiment that fails to find cold fusion can be discounted as merely not working for unknown reasons") is not controversial ? If so, I would propose to add it to the History section where the DOE is discussed. Comments welcome. Content dispute do not automatically result in a ban, if there are properly addressed using dispute resolution mechanism. By the way, the record shows that editors on both sides of the cold fusion debate have been banned in the past. If there is still a dispute on this article, it should be addressed by a DR process such as mediation. Pcarbonn (talk) 09:08, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In my opinion, the quote is not controversial at all; in fact it is so obvious that adding it to the article would add nothing, and instead would distract the reader. Olorinish (talk) 14:30, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
ah, there you go: by that logic it fails the notability/significance test. i'd also add that it's a POV and thus if it were to be included it should be so as attributed opinion, which raises the notability bar. Kevin Baastalk 14:37, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
What the DOE considers "revolutionary" is not notable exactly why again please? 99.27.201.92 (talk) 06:48, 29 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
it's not notable because the truth of the statement is fairly obvious. the strength/nature of the words in the sentence has no bearing on notability, it's the how improbable the assertion is. and in this case, the assertion is highly probable. i.e. no one disputes that IF there were a "short but valid cold fusion period" that would be "revolutionary", that is, it would call in to question much of what we take for granted about nuclear physics. that is really quite obvious. any particular source stating the obvious is really quite un-extraordinary. To put it more technically, "notability" means we want to have a high density of information in the article. And that is measured by "surprise", or, more formally, Kullback-Leibler divergence. And since that assertion agrees with most models of physics and scientific progress, the KL-divergence of it is nearly zero. I would be like saying, "Oh, and grass is green." (And adding emphasis, such as "Oh, and like the grass is TOTALLY green, man." doesn't make the assertion any less trivial.) Kevin Baastalk 18:53, 29 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
How could the statement possibly be obvious to a non-technical reader, or even a technically literate reader unfamiliar with the field? Can you point to any other statement in the entire encyclopedia which has ever been excluded from a controversial article because it was obvious? 208.54.5.73 (talk) 20:14, 29 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Anything taht's been excluded on account of undue weight, lack of notability, or in certain caes, POV-porblem (e.g. repetition), was excluded for the same reason. Quite regardless of whether or not the article, or the material for that matter, was controversial. Kevin Baastalk 13:44, 30 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
On furhter investigation, the policy - perhaps on account of it being written from a classical paradigm rather than a more modern approach - only mentions it briefly and vaguely (in WP:DUE): "An article should not give undue weight to any aspects of the subject but should strive to treat each aspect with a weight appropriate to its significance to the subject." Here they use "significance", which is more complex, but include the aforementioned "surprise". Suffice it to say that my little KL-divergence note goes much deeper: the fact that we/speak or write at all presumes that we have information to convey; that there is KL-divergence between the model we communicate and the reciever's preconcieved model; i.e. that reading comprehension amounts to something of a "bayesian update". were this not the case our words might as well be a random combination of letters. fdgahfkghrdgiulrehlrehnvrevwrmvmer my point is that this is a fact inherent in language - and even deeper than that - in communication - whether between two humans, two computers, or two brain cells. You can't avoid it. But you can use it to write better articles. And it's pivotal for neutrality. For further clarification I guess you can read the neutrality ection of my user page. Kevin Baastalk 14:14, 30 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

An alternative proposal. I'm wondering why we say the following in the lead : "Enthusiasm turned to scepticism as replication failures were weighed in view of several reasons cold fusion should not be possible (...)". It is obvious that these two arguments cannot be recognized as valid by any scientists worth its salt, and the sources we provide don't explicitly say it either, as far as I can see. Shouldn't we remove it, in view of the discussion we just had ?

It is not obvious to me how the first argument (replication failures) cannot be recognized as a valid reason to become skeptical. It might be interesting if statistics could be gathered regarding the manufacturing methods used for the pieces of palladium used in each of the replication-attempts. There were not very many successful replications in the early days; some of the failures might be attributable to ending the experiment prior to adequate deuterium loading; most of the rest could be blamed on the bad luck of having a piece of palladium with an inappropriate microstructure. The few who were lucky simply got drowned out, which is not entirely unreasonable. Science depends on reliable replications of experiments, after all. The part that is not reasonable was the backlash about fusion being involved (obviously it could not be reasonably expected to be involved in any experiment that failed to produce anomalous energy! Not enough experimenters succeeded at the primary replication stage, for Science to be able to rationally proceed to the stage of trying to find out if fusion was causing the anomalous energy. Only in the past five years or so has the rate of replication-of-production-of-anomalous-energy become high enough for that second stage to become an investigation-priority. On the other hand, due to the overall controversy of the topic, it seems to me that the actual highest priority for people in the CF field is to get the word out, that now enough is known that most experimenters should be able to fairly reliably produce anomalous energy. Succeed at that, and nothing will stand in the way of serious investigation as to the source of that energy. Pcarbonn, I think your proposal below should be modified to retain the current text regarding early replicaton failures. V (talk) 16:52, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The lead would then say something like this: "Enthusiasm turned to scepticism when possible sources of experimental errors were discovered, and when it became evident that Fleischmann and Pons had not actually detected the expected nuclear reaction byproducts." Pcarbonn (talk) 20:53, 29 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Krivit Elsevier Encyclopedia Articles Publish

Encyclopedia of Electrochemical Power Sources Five-Volume Set http://www.elsevierdirect.com/brochures/ecps/

Krivit, S.B, “Cold Fusion: History,” Encyclopedia of Electrochemical Power Sources, Vol 2, Juergen Garche, Chris Dyer, Patrick Moseley, Zempachi Ogumi, David Rand and Bruno Scrosati, eds, Amsterdam: Elsevier; Nov. 2009. p. 271–276, ISBN 9780444520937

Krivit, S.B, “Cold Fusion - Precursor to Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions,” Encyclopedia of Electrochemical Power Sources, Vol 2, Juergen Garche, Chris Dyer, Patrick Moseley, Zempachi Ogumi, David Rand and Bruno Scrosati, eds, Amsterdam: Elsevier; Nov. 2009. p. 255–270, ISBN 9780444520937

Notes:

1. These articles were peer-reviewed.
2. The articles were invited.
3. I believe the "Precursor" article may be the first comprehensive encyclopedia article on CF/LENR to publish in a PRINT encyclopedia. (Please correct if this assertion is wrong.)
4. Anybody wishing a complementary copy of the articles may send an email to steven1@newenergytimes.com.

StevenBKrivit (talk) 22:21, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Page 49 (PDF page 4) of http://www.elsevierdirect.com/brochures/ecps/PDFs/PowerTools_Batteries.pdf has a table which seems more useful than anything in battery (electricity), although we don't do too bad[4]. Do you have a plot of excess power along a Pd:B alloy ratio axis? 99.27.201.92 (talk) 08:14, 29 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]


"Loading Time" discussion

In the "Another Proposal" section currently near the top of this page I described some edits, only the last of which was disputed in that section. The other day I decided it was time to start implementing the edits, and in doing so invited others to add appropriate references. Now Hipocrite has come along and deleted the text on the basis, apparently, that the references were not added. This is ridiculous! If references were not available, regarding the text I added, I would have expected Hipocrite to have raised that point in the original discussion above. This is the text that was removed (from the "Experimental Details" section, just before the "Excess heat observations" subsection): "Note that even when anomalous heat does appear, it can take weeks for it to begin to appear, and this is known as the "loading time", for the palladium to become saturated with deuterium released via electrolysis. However, in a significant advance, the SPAWAR team pioneered a "co-deposition" technique for greatly reducing the loading time; palladium metal is electroplated out of solution at the same time deuterium gas is being released, allowing the gas to merge with the metal without having to permeate the metal's volume. They report typically observing excess heat within a day."

I'm sure someone around here knows of specific RS references that support those statements. Especially in the case of the definition of "loading time" ---for example, here is a Non-RS link in which the phrase is used so casually the author appears to be assuming any reader will know what it is: http://amasci.com/weird/anode.txt --the text describes an experiment in which this is claimed: "2. It is *totally reproducible* -- at will -- with no loading time as in the Pd/heavy water experiments" (The text also mentions publication of the experiment in 1950 in the RS "Journal of the Electrochemical Society", but that's not really relevant to this particular discussion.) What is highly relevant is that the text refers to an "upcoming issue" of the non-RS magazine "Infinite Energy" as being issue #20 --that magazine publishes 6 times a year, and the current issue is #88, so this means that the text I've linked, that so casually talks about "loading time", is plenty old enough for appropriate RS sources to exist, regarding it.

My Google search that found the above linked text also found this item: http://www.springerlink.com/content/q05420j448382338/ --an RS article dated June 1990, about an attempted/failed replication of the original P&F experiment. The Google search found this text: "It is believed that the loading time scales with the thickness of the piece, squared. ... volved in the so-called cold fusion experiments." --which I think probably exists somewhere in the depths of the actual article, and not on the abstract page that Google presented. It's kind of interesting that this experiment was terminated after only 3 weeks of (possibly inadequate) loading time, while deuterium that had gotten into the palladium was still coming out 8 weeks later. Since it is now known that the microstructure of the metal (how was it fabricated?) plays a role, it is possible that no amount of loading time would have sufficed for that particular experiment. Again, though, this experiment isn't as important here as the fact that the report is more evidence that the phrase "loading time" has been in use for a long time in the CF research field! The article here should have this in it! V (talk) 13:58, 30 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Recent data has shown that even something you think would be as simple as loading behavior is not well understood by the empiricists. That presents dim prospects for finding any source not recognizing the oscillatory behavior of loading which anyone paying attention would call reliable. 99.27.134.160 (talk) 16:26, 30 December 2009 (UTC) (sock of User:Nrcprm2026) --Enric Naval (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Search in all SPAWAR papers:

  • "Characterization of Tracks in CR-39 Detectors Obtained as a Result of Pd/D Co-deposition," Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys., (2009). It describes the charging procedure as follows: "Palladium is then plated out onto the cathode substrate using a charging profile of 100 μA for 24 h, followed by 200 μA for 48 h followed by 500 μA until the palladium has been plated out. (...) After the palladium has been electrochemically plated out, the cathodic current is increased to 1 mA for 2 h, 2 mA for 6 h, 5 mA for 24 h, 10 mA for 24 h, 25 mA for 24 h, 50 mA for 24 h, 75 mA for 24 h , and 100 mA for 24 h."
  • "Triple Tracks in CR-39 as the Result of Pd–D Co-deposition: Evidence of Energetic Neutrons," , Naturwissenschaften, 2008 : " Upon completion of the experiment, which typically run 2–3 weeks,(...)"
  • “Detection of Energetic Particles and Neutrons Emitted during Pd:D Co-deposition", Low Energy Nuclear Reactions Source Book, American Chemical Society , Chapter 14, pp 311-334. (2008).
  • Evidence of Nuclear Reactions in the Pd Lattice”, Naturwissenschaften, 92, 394 (2005). "For the present case, the cell current profile was as follows: 1 mA for the first 24 h followed by 3.0 mA for a period necessary to reduce all Pd2+ ions (i.e., when the solution becomes colorless). (...) The far from equilibrium condition is realized by increasing the cell current to 100 mA or higher."
  • The Effect of an External Electric Field on Surface Morphology of Co-Deposited Pd/D Films”, J. Electroanal. Chem., 580, 284 (2005). "1.0 mAcm-2 for 8 h, 3 mA cm-2 for 8 h and at 5.0 mA cm-2 until all Pd2+ ions were reduced, i.e. when, by visual inspection, the solution becomes colorless. Upon completion of the Pd deposition, the cell current was increased to a value needed to maintain a visible gas evolution (usually 30–50 mA cm-2) for the next 2–3 h followed by the cell placement in an electric field (500– 3000 V cm-1) with the cell current increased to about 100 mA cm-2 for the next 48 h or longer. "
  • Thermal Behavior of Polarized Pd/D Electrodes Prepared by Co-Deposition”, Thermochimica Acta, 410, 101 (2004). "No re-filling of the cells was necessary due to the short time period of these experiments (8 days) and the low current that were used for the first 5 days" The chart do show some temperature increase in the beginning of the experiment though.

So, experiments typically last several days, and a graph in the last document shows that thermal effects have been observed in the beginning of these experiments. However, I could not find any statement that could be quoted here. Pcarbonn (talk) 11:07, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. The graph may be adequate. We are allowed to write descriptions, after all. I was aware that my text "within a day" was possibly not completely correct, and half-expected that when a reference was found, it would be edited --"within days" could be better, especially when the source is a graph.
We stil need an appropriate reference regarding the definition of "loading time", though. V (talk) 15:26, 4 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]


Ultradense Deuterium

Not hugely relevant to improving this article yet, this compressed block is for letting editors here be informed of some possibly-relevant news.
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/01/winterberg-on-ultradense-deuterium.html They are talking about hot fusion, of course. However, if this is true: http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/05/university-of-gothenberg-making.html then what about the possibility of such a "phase change" happening inside a palladium metal lattice? This is Original Research, of course, but if I can think if it, eventually so will someone else (who is in a position to publish in a Reliable Source). I'm relatively sure that if this phase change did happen, it would enhance the possibility that electron-screened fusion might occur, equivalent to the "hydrino" hypothesis. V (talk) 19:50, 4 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Neutrons from glow discharge cathode deuterium fusion for transmuting nuclear waste and medical isotopes

This 2002 unreviewed(?) primary source describes decontamination of radioactive waste with 104 neutrons/cm2 and 4 MeV gammas, citing Karabut et al (1991) "The investigation of deuterium fusion at glow discharge cathode," J. Fusion Technology 20:924-8. In 1992 the same team claimed stronger results (Karabut, A.B., Y.R. Kucherov, and I.B. Savvatimova. Possible Nuclear Reactions Mechanisms at Glow Discharge in Deuterium. in Third International Conference on Cold Fusion, "Frontiers of Cold Fusion". 1992. Nagoya Japan: Universal Academy Press, Inc., Tokyo, Japan.)

We should mention this in a new "Applications" section sourced to the bottom of page 3 of the secondary 2009 DIA report, and include the note about the peer-reviewed 1991 and the academic press 1992 Karabut et al publications to support the neutron flux and energies necessary. The problem of nuclear waste is really a substantial problem, with huge implications for the planet's ability to address climate change.

At least one other of the DIA's unanticipated applications listed, medical isotope generation, should also be included, because the North American continent ran out of technetium-99m and other short-lived nuclear medicine isotopes briefly last year. If deuterium fusion at glow discharge cathodes is a useful source of neutrons, it could easily have far more commercial potential than power generation. Dual Use (talk) 03:12, 6 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, do we really want to waste our time on discussing unpublished, unreviewed sources that speculate on possible applications of a hypothetical characteristic of a technology of which we can't find solid evidence? Somehow it seems a rather long stretch of WP:V, WP:RS, and WP:NOT#CRYSTAL all at once. Why? LeadSongDog come howl 04:47, 6 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Does a DoE report with a press release from a few years back take precedence over a DIA government secondary source without a press release from less than a year ago? Since when did having a press release have anything to do with whether something was published or not?
Also, are the 1991 peer-reviewed and 1992 academic press articles validated by the late 200x confirmations of neutrons? Dual Use (talk) 06:31, 6 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I referred to the unpublished docstoc source (effectively an uncontrolled publisher), but press releases are not normally WP:RS either. LeadSongDog come howl 06:45, 6 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sorry, my fault; the source for that is: Tsvetkov, S.A. Possibility Of Using Of Cold Fusion For Nuclear Waste Products Transmutation. in Tenth International Conference on Cold Fusion. 2003. Cambridge, MA. So it is certainly published, just not peer reviewed. Does it count as giving "significant attention in the press" to the peer reviewed paper it cites for experimental data? Dual Use (talk) 19:08, 6 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
No. There is a walled garden of publications about cold fusion. To gain "significant attention in the press," you need to break out from that. Hipocrite (talk) 19:11, 6 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There are multiple peer reviewed publications in pertinent academic journals, from the early 1990s through late 2000s which all agree that a neutron flux on the order of 104/cm2 and ~4 MeV gamma rays are produced by certain cold fusion processes. There are multiple peer-reviewed, and generally uncontroversial (as far as I can tell) academic journal articles saying that kind of neutron source can be used to decontaminate nuclear waste and manufacture nuclear medicine isotopes. And there's a non-reviewed conference paper from 2003 which ties cold fusion to nuclear waste decontamination, which received attention in the government secondary source from the DIA. That government secondary source also says the same process could possibly be used to produce medical isotopes and decommission nuclear weapons. Where is the wall on the walled garden, and what would need to happen for that wall to be breached? Dual Use (talk) 20:36, 6 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
1. No, there are not, and 2. "a non-reviewed conference paper from 2003" is not a reliable source for exciting new developments. What was your old account, please? Hipocrite (talk) 20:38, 6 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
What are you saying there aren't any of? The 2009 DIA secondary government report reiterates the exciting development; you're the one saying it's new. I don't want to tell you the name of my old account for reasons we have already discussed. How about trying to make good faith attempts to improve instead of attacking editors? Dual Use (talk) 00:59, 7 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
A reliable secondary (or even tertiary) source that can be quoted in support of the proposed statement is the Encyclopedia of Electrochemical Power Sources, a peer-reviewed book referenced in a thread above, which says : "Recent experiments suggest the possibility of using the transmutation reactions to clean up the radioactive material that results from nuclear fission reactions." Here is the full reference:
Krivit, S.B, “Cold Fusion - Precursor to Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions,” Encyclopedia of Electrochemical Power Sources, Vol 2, Juergen Garche, Chris Dyer, Patrick Moseley, Zempachi Ogumi, David Rand and Bruno Scrosati, eds, Amsterdam: Elsevier; Nov. 2009. p. 255–270, ISBN 9780444520937
Pcarbonn (talk) 11:35, 7 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I question if any article contributed by Krivit is a reliable source. He's not a scientist, he's an advocate. Hipocrite (talk) 12:19, 7 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Do you have a source for saying that "he is an advocate" ? His list of publication on newenergytimes.com shows that he is endorsed by many organisations and publications. He has also been cited many times in the press. In this case, he has been invited to contribute to an encyclopedia published by Elsevier, and the paper has been peer-reviewed. Because this topic is controversial, we could attribute the proposed sentence, and say: "Proponents say that ...". If you have any doubt that this is not a reliable source, we can ask the RS noticeboard. Pcarbonn (talk) 13:38, 7 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]