[ckilmer]

Certainly palladium and platinum have served as catalyst in hydrogen production. I've seen a bunch of articles on them. What they do is lower the temperature and pressure needed to split the hydrogen off from whatever it is bound too.

But I don't know what that would have to do with cold fusion.

[Final Authority]

Spend some time and research the topic before you offer opinions that are not accurate relating to this topic.

I've studied this topic since late '88 and although there is controversy there is a steady stream of non conflicting experimental results reported that indicate that at least sometimes fusion does take place. The experiments report that tritium and neutrons are detectable in the course of energy production. The only way such products exist in this type of experiment is when hydrogen atoms fuse. The hydrogen is in the form of deuterium or heavy water. The palladium is a hydrogen sink or like a sponge and it is theorized that the atoms get packed in so tightly because of the electrochemical conditions that some fuse.

MIT in Technology Review of 1992 did a whole issue on this topic and discussed the pros and cons. The professor mentioned in this article, Hagelstein, wrote the part that gave some credibility to the topics and experiments. He apparently has since studied it further and come to the conclusion that there is really something there.

Dr. Eugene Mallove of Concord, NH (deceased) a former prof at MIT and publisher of "Cold Times" and an alternative energy magazine and the sponsor of the Cold Fusion meetings often held in Cambridge MA, was a major proponent of the topic. He was ridiculed for years and was murdered at his mother's home in CT last year.

One of the reasons some have thought that Mallove was murdered is to quiet the fact that cold fusion produced tritium, and necessary fusion isotope for making fusion weapons. Nuclear weapons using fusion technology, often called H bombs, can be made smaller and more efficient that conventional fission weapons.