Posted on 05/27/2008 1:35:26 PM PDT by Red Badger
On May 22, researchers at Osaka University presented the first demonstration of cold fusion since an unsuccessful attempt in 1989 that has clouded the field to this day.
To many people, cold fusion sounds too good to be true. The idea is that, by creating nuclear fusion at room temperature, researchers can generate a nearly unlimited source of power that uses water as fuel and produces almost zero waste. Essentially, cold fusion would make oil obsolete.
However, many experts debate whether money should be spent on cold fusion research or applied to more realistic alternative energy solutions. For decades, researchers around the world have been simply trying to show that cold fusion is indeed possible, but they´ve yet to take that important first step.
Now, esteemed Physics Professor Yoshiaki Arata of Osaka University in Japan claims to have made the first successful demonstration of cold fusion. Last Thursday, May 22, Arata and his colleague Yue-Chang Zhang of Shianghai Jiotong University presented the cold fusion demonstration to 60 onlookers, including other physicists, as well as reporters from six major newspapers and two TV studios. If Arata and Zhang´s demonstration is real, it could lead to a future of new, clean, and cheap energy generation.
In their experiment, the physicists forced deuterium gas into a cell containing a mixture of palladium and zirconium oxide, which absorbed the deuterium to produce a dense "pynco" deuterium. In this dense state, the deuterium nuclei from different atoms were so close together that they fused to produce helium nuclei.
Evidence for the occurrence of this fusion came from measuring the temperature inside the cell. When Arata first injected the deuterium gas, the temperature rose to about 70° C (158° F), which Arata explained was due to nuclear and chemical reactions. When he turned the gas off, the temperature inside the cell remained warmer than the cell wall for 50 hours, which Arata said was an effect of nuclear fusion.
While Arata´s demonstration looked promising to his audience, the real test is still to come: duplication. Many scientists and others are now recalling the infamous 1989 demonstration by Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, who claimed to produce controlled nuclear fusion in a glass jar at room temperature. However, no one - including Fleischmann and Pons - could duplicate the experiment, leading many people to consider cold fusion a pseudoscience to this day.
But one witness at the recent demonstration, physicist Akito Takahashi of Osaka University, thought that the experiment should be able to be repeated.
"Arata and Zhang demonstrated very successfully the generation of continuous excess energy [heat] from ZrO2-nano-Pd sample powders under D2 gas charging and generation of helium-4," Takahashi told New Energy Times. "The demonstrated live data looked just like data they reported in their published papers [J. High Temp. Soc. Jpn, Feb. and March issues, 2008]. This demonstration showed that the method is highly reproducible."
In addition, researchers will have to repeat the experiment with larger amounts of the palladium and zirconium oxide mixture in order to generate larger quantities of energy.
via: Physics World and New Energy Times
Bridge for Sale!! Bridge for Sale!!
Just once I want one of these unlimited energy ideas to really bear fruit.
That was cold...
Nuclear power plants use the heat from the reaction to generate steam to turn the turbine to generate electricity.
What benefit would cold fusion bring to the world if it did exist?
I smell a huge government grant. More study needed don’tcha know.
...or even vegetables........
Apparently that is what Mr. Fusion works on....
A larger “cold fusion” reactor could generate heat to power steam turbines without all that messy radiation and stuff like nuclear wastes.............;^)
I think it would be money that was better spent on studying cow farts.......;^)
This seems to be similar to the first cold fusion experiment. Several critical items were left out of the description, perhaps to conceal problem areas.
...and stale beer, don’t forget the stale beer..................
“pynco”
I’m going to start a new, pro fusion, advocacy group. It will be called;
Code Pynco. Or maybe Cold Pynco.
D-D fusion must emit certain particles, and likewise D-T and T-T. To date nobody has run an experiment using readily available particle spectrometers. There have been a few half-hearted measurements of induced activity, but no “real” measurements.
1) Presence of Helium: Obviously, if it is fusion, then there should be fusion byproducts.
2) Presence of Radiation: One of the big problems with believing the initial experiments is the fact that Pons and Fleischmann should have died from the neutron radiation generated. In D-D experiments, equivalent gamma radiation is expected to occur, although it would not be nearly as dangerous.
3) Variation according to concentration of Deuterium: How does the reaction rate vary according to the amount of D inserted? This should give important information regarding the reaction.
I assume that they have already tested for a different reaction given D as opposed to normal Hydrogen. It isn't explicitly stated in the article, but is highly implied from the context.
Even if the experiment turns out not to be cold fusion and is normal electrochemistry in disguise, explaining it should significantly improve our understanding of electrochemistry in certain contexts. Therefore, by making it duplicatable, at least some real science can come out of this whole mess. These scientists deserve reasonable praise even if it turns out not to be fusion.
Of course all these cold fusion experiments have worked but the evil oil companies have bought them up and is hiding them to make us buy more oil. Waahhahhahha
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