Yes, but that's not the important thing, IMHO.
The important thing is repeatable evidence that nuclear reactions can be catalyzed by surface effects on a material substrate. This is what Pons and Fleischmann were claiming as the explanation for "cold fusion." Their claims were challenged by the traditional nuclear physics world, which rose up as one to deride their claims a poppycock.
P&F were electrochemists, and if their results were accepted, it would jeopardize multiple billions of annual dollars being spent to keep the nuclear physics world on the government gravy train.
These results appear - to my layman's eye anyway - that something nuclear is going on at the surface level, and the mere possibility of that is exactly what the established scientific community - led by MIT - attacked with all their might back in 1989. I remember it very clearly because I was in graduate school in the spring and fall of 1989, and I remember hearing that members of the Physics Department at the institution I was attending had been directly lobbied to get with the program and attack P&F, which they did.
One of the individuals involved passed away in January 2012; I attended his funeral. The topic of his involvement in the P&F matter was part of his professional epitaph, delivered by a close colleague, and was discussed energetically at the funeral reception he was buried.
One of the individuals involved passed away in January 2012; I attended his funeral. The topic of his involvement in the P&F matter was part of his professional epitaph, delivered by a close colleague, and was discussed energetically at the funeral reception he was buried.
***Science progresses one funeral at a time.