The Pons-Fleischmann Experiment, An Attempt to Create Room-Temperature Nuclear Fusion
In 1989, when the University of Utah announced a breakthrough in nuclear fusion, unlimited clean energy seemed to be at hand. Unfortunately, it was a pipe dream.
Marcia Wendorf
Marcia Wendorf
Created: Sep 28, 2019 04:38 AM EST
After the University of Utah announced the discovery on March 23, 1989, scientists around the world tried to replicate the experiment. A team led by Dr. Nathan Lewis at the California Institute of Technology used more sensitive equipment than the Utah team had used, and they found no fusion had taken place. They also found that no neutrons, gamma rays, tritium or helium were emitted, as the Utah team had claimed.
By May, 1989 physicists at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Baltimore, Maryland unleashed a torrent of attacks on Pons and Fleischmann. Dr. Lewis told the 1,800 assembled physicists that "Pons would never answer any of our questions …" Dr. Steven E. Koonin of Caltech described the Utah experiment as the result of "the incompetence and delusion of Pons and Fleischmann."
https://interestingengineering.com/science/the-pons-fleischmann-experiment-an-attempt-to-create-room-temperature-nuclear-fusion
How Possible Is Cold Fusion?
Alfred Cheung
March 21, 2019
Submitted as coursework for PH241, Stanford University, Winter 2019
Why it is not possible
Here, we outline three reasons for why reports of cold fusion cannot be true.
The energetics - for two deuterium nuclei to fuse, they must come within nuclear distances of each other. The Coulomb energy associated with repulsion is then of the order of MeV. Thermal energy scales near room temperature are in contrast on the order of meV. It simply requires a miracle for the Coulomb barrier to breached at room temperatures. Even proponents of cold fusion admit this is a difficult aspect to explain and resort to referring to unknown effects caused by the solid state host.
Lack of neutrons produced - The two nuclear fusion reactions with the largest cross sections for deuterium are [2]:
2D 2D → 3T 1H
2D 2D → 3He n
If fusion does occur, then by the second reaction, neutrons should be produced in large numbers. However, this is not observed. [1]
Lack of gamma rays produced - The final reason also pertains to the products of the reaction. If deuterium nuclei were to fuse, it is expected that most of the energy released should be in the form of gamma rays rather than as heat. There is also no evidence for gamma rays in claims of observations of cold fusion. [1]
Conclusion
The three reasons above are known as the "three miracles" that are required to happen in order to explain the early experiments claiming to observe cold fusion. The only way to get past these problems is to argue that just because we cannot understand something, it does not mean it is not real. Yet, the problem with this is that a real result should be reproducible. Currently, the reproducibility rate of such solid state cold fusion experiments is at a meager 3%. [2] Indeed, while the prospect of cold fusion is undoubtedly attractive, based on all of what we know about nuclear physics, it is likely a fruitless pursuit.
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2019/ph241/cheung1/
December 13, 2022
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced the achievement of fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) — a major scientific breakthrough decades in the making that will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/lawrence-livermore-national-laboratorys-national-ignition-facility-achieves-fusion-ignition