1. Too Good To Be True The Strange, But True, Story of Cold Fusion

2. The Announcement Ø March 23, 1989 – Salt Lake City Ø “Two scientists have successfully created a sustained nuclear fusion reaction at room temperature in a chemistry laboratory at the University of Utah.” Ø “The greatest invention since the discovery of fire.”

3. Pons and Fleischmann Dr. Stanley Pons Dr. Martin Fleischman

4. A Nuclear Fusion Primer Ø In nuclear fusion two light nuclei are combined into a heavier nucleus, releasing energy. Ø Deuterium, 2 H, can be used in D-D fusion to release approximately 4.00 MeV per fusion. p n Deuterium

5. Two Pathways D + D  p + 3 H D + D  n + 3 He p n p n p n p n 3 He p n p n p n p n 3H3H

6. Energy Of Fusion Ø In the D + D  p + 3 H reaction most of the energy (3 MeV) is carried away by the proton. Ø In the D + D  n + 3 He reaction the neutron carries most of the energy (2.45 MeV).

7. Hot Fusion Ø Because of the electrostatic repulsion between the deuterium nuclei high temperatures are used to bring them together to fuse. Ø Magnetically confined plasmas are used to generate the high temperatures.

8. Hot Fusion: Tokomak

9. The Cold Fusion Machine Ø The Cold fusion “machine” was a beaker of “heavy water” (D 2 O) with a couple of electrodes and a small power supply.

10. The Cold Fusion Experiment How did they do that?

11. The Cold Fusion Cell Ø The anode is a coil of platinum and the cathode a palladium rod. Ø The cell is filled with heavy water and immersed in a water bath. Ø LiOD is added to the heavy water as the electrolyte.

12. The Cold Fusion Process Ø The electric current splits the D 2 O molecules into D 2 gas and OD – ions at the cathode. Ø The ions migrate to the anode and form D 2 O and O 2. Ø Palladium has a great affinity for hydrogen and deuterium ions are absorbed into the cathode – up to a density of thousands of times that of deuterium gas. Ø The closely packed deuterium nuclei fuse and release heat, neutrons, protons, etc.

13. The Signs of Fusion Ø Excess Heat* Ø Neutrons* Ø Tritium* (?) Ø 3 He Ø Protons

14. The P & F Evidence Heat and Light

15. Excess Heat

16. Neutrons via Gammas Ø Some neutrons would be absorbed by the H nuclei in the water releasing a 2.2 MeV gamma- ray. Ø P & F looked for these gammas.

17. Gamma-Rays Ø The gamma-ray peak as presented in the first P & F paper submitted to the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry (JEC).

18. The Reaction Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one. -Charles Mackay Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,1841 Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,1841

19. A Media Explosion Ø Cold Fusion became a instant media event. Ø P & F were interviewed on all the major news networks. Ø Congress scheduled hearings on CF.

20. The Scramble to Confirm or Refute Ø Numerous physics and chemistry labs began experiments using the limited information available. Ø Large scale efforts at MIT, Los Alamos, Harwell, Yale, and Caltech were launched.

21. Confirmations Ø Jones, et. al. (BYU Neutrons) Ø Georgia Tech – Neutrons Ø Texas A & M – Excess Heat Ø Seattle – Tritium Ø Small colleges and independent researchers Ø Bob’s Discount House of Knowledge

22. Doubts Ø Why are they still breathing? Heat vs. neutron output.Heat vs. neutron output. Ø Are the nuclei really any closer? Ø Where are the control runs? Ø What’s wrong with that peak? The MIT gang goes to the video replay.The MIT gang goes to the video replay.

23. Gamma-Rays Ø The gamma-ray peak as presented in the first P & F paper submitted to the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry (JEC). 2200

24. The Video Peak

25. Comparing Peaks

26. The APS Meeting Ø Caltech: Steve Koonin and Nathan Lewis Ø Questions about the Calorimetry Closed cell vs. Open cellClosed cell vs. Open cell Raw data?Raw data? Ø A lot of negative results.

27. Excess Heat

28. Retractions Ø Georgia Tech – Temperature (not Neutrons) Ø Texas A & M – Ungrounded thermistor (not Excess Heat ) Ø Seattle – “Remind me how a mass spec works again.” (not Tritium )

29. Harwell Ø Working with advice from Fleischmann the Harwell Nuclear Lab conducted the most extensive set of cold fusion tests in the world. Ø Cells were tested in numerous configurations for heat, neutrons, gammas, tritium, and Helium-3. Ø No evidence for nuclear processes in any of the experiments. Ø “Sometimes brilliant people have mad ideas” – J. Williams, Dir. Harwell Lab

30. The Utah Physicists Ø Mike Salamon lead a team of physicists from the University of Utah to make extensive radiation measurements in Pons’ laboratory. Ø Na(I) detectors searched for Gamma-rays from neutrons, and protons. Ø No signal was seen above background after 831 hours of measurement. Ø “upper bound of 10 picowatts of energy generated by any known nuclear process”

31. What Happened? And what can we learn?

32. Pons & Fleischmann Ø Was it a fraud? Ø The rush to announce. Ø “The explosion.” Ø Isolation from peers. Ø “Sometimes brilliant people have mad ideas.”

33. The Science Community Ø Meeting expectations. Ø The good, the bad and the normal distribution. Ø “Seek simplicity, and distrust it” A. N. Whitehead