‘Hot’ fusion is a much more realistic and scientifically founded idea(that fiery ball in the sky tells us we can do it), and guess which country is planning on having the first self-contained fusion power plant?
France. At least the USA is part of the group building it, so we can use the results.
Cold fusion, as far as I know, has no proof of actually producing net energy.
Actually, neither has hot. But it looks like BOTH "cold fusion" and non-Tokamak "hot fusion" are both "heating up".
Recent work released by a Navy Lab provides VERY strong evidence that the process involved in CF is indeed nuclear (their use of track-etch detectors to measure high-energy alpha particles given off seems pretty airtight).
And in another small Navy program, Dr. Robert Bussard (yes, he of the "Bussard ramjet" concept) claims to have made the necessary breakthrough to make electrostatic confinement fusion possible.
I heard that same line 30 years ago and we are no closer to commercial fussion now than we were then. There is absolutly nothing "realistic" about it. Fussion power generation is still only theory after the billions in research dollars that have been spent around the world over the decades.