[AntiGuv]

w00t! (gotta start somewhere)

[AntiGuv]

cold fusion ping!

[Doctor Stochastic]

...does not pose the safety and long-term radioactive waste concerns associated with modern nuclear power plants....

No, they pose other safety and waste concerns. (Neutron embrittlement of the reactor vessel is one obvious problem.)

[chimera]

The resulting electric field created a beam of charged deuterium atoms that struck a nearby target, which was embedded with yet more deuterium. When some of the deuterium atoms in the beam collided with their counterparts in the target, they fused.

That's nothing more than a neutron generator that's been around for a long time. I was doing that as an undergraduate physics major in the early 1970s using a clunky old Crockroft-Walton linac. It makes a neat demo experiment for physics classes, but isn't anything new or exciting.

[Semper Paratus]

But the amount of energy produced was too little to be seen as a breakthrough in solving the world's energy needs

AP would qualify the headline:

"Cure for Cancer"
"But no breakthrough in sight yet against gout"

[PeterFinn]

Okay, who's got the picture of the 'Mr. Fusion' from "Back to the Future"?

[Waterleak]

Well its about time. So lemme guess, it should be 5 to 10 years before we'll see this used?

[Texas Federalist]

Fusion experts noted that the UCLA experiment was credible because, unlike the 1989 work, it didn't violate basic principles of physics.

In order to be credible, it can't violate the rules of physics? We needed an expert to tell us this?

[add925]

UCLA Lab Equipment for this experiment:

[InterceptPoint]

The experiment did not, however, produce more energy than the amount put in — an achievement that would be a huge breakthrough.

The money line as they say. UCLA should give a call when they don't have to explain that the lunch is still not free.

[Graymatter]

It's no less feasible than the alternative. (Converting the Arabs to Christianity...)

[Gary - Peters]

A fusion experiment technical paper being submitted to "Nature" is most suspect.

Submission to the IEEE or other far higher academic resource would be taken seriously.

This reminds me of a lame brain biology instructor I had at VWCC who accepted the Mother Earth News as an acceptable academic, technical resource for inclusion in research.

[Fitzcarraldo]

But the amount of energy produced was

too little

to be seen as a breakthrough in solving the world's energy needs

[Physicist]

Electrostatic inertial confinement? I got yer electrostatic inertial confinement, right here:

[jennyp]

Philo Farnsworth produced over 15 billion neutrons/cc/sec in his fusor (cold fusion) device in 1965. Dozens of amateurs are producing neutrons in their garages using their own fusor designs.

[chilepepper]

big deal.

the chile i ate two or three years ago and left in the back of my refrigerator has definitely begun to undergo nuclear fusion...