Three days earlier, New Energy Times science journalists Steven Krivit and Nadine Winocur had released a 50-page report on the current state of cold fusion. According to this report, almost 15,000 cold fusion experiments have been performed around the world since the field was declared anathema in 1989. In the first years after the initial announcement, experimental results were erratic and inconsistent, often with positive results occurring in only about 10 percent of the experiments. Within the last five years, however, successful replications have been occurring much more frequently. Five years ago, the Fleichmann-Pons effect had been observed in only about 45 percent of the experiments performed. Now, according to Krivit and Winocur, the effect has been reproduced at a rate of 83%. Experimenters in Japan, Romania, the United States, and Russia have reported a reproducibility rate of 100 percent.
This experimental success is due in large measure to more refined methods of measuring excess heat and detecting the signatures of nuclear reactions. Over the years, experimenters have discovered that in order to obtain more robust results, the ratio of deuterium atoms in the electrolyte solution to palladium atoms in the cathode must be above a certain minimum threshold. This is referred to as “loading.” The density of the electric current passing through the system must likewise reach a certain threshold. More recently, it was discovered that excess heat could be generated faster if the reaction could be triggered in some fashion. In a paper presented at the 10th International Conference of Cold Fusion, held at MIT in August 2003, researchers Dennis Cravens and Dennis Letts presented a variety of methods that could be used to “shock the system,” including current-pulsing, radio frequency excitations, and laser stimulation. Actual experiments were carried out at the conference, and the results were manifest for all to see.
According to Dr. Eugene Mallove, editor of Infinite Energy Magazine and a passionate advocate of cold fusion development, the evidence of excess heat and products from nuclear reactions is so extensive as to compel a finding that the cold fusion phenomenon is real. Were it not for Dr. Mallove and others who kept the faith, cold fusion might well have faded from the public consciousness.
When the Department of Energy decided to give cold fusion another hearing, it made no public announcement and did not post any information about its decision on its website. Nevertheless, Dr. Mallove remains confident that once the Department evaluates the evidence in an open-minded and unbiased fashion, it will reconsider its earlier rejection of cold fusion and pave the way for funding of next-generation cold fusion research.
Whether or not cold fusion can be turned into a useful source of energy remains uncertain. But the first step of that 1000-mile journey has been taken. The existence of the phenomenon discovered by Fleischmann and Pons in 1989, then disavowed by the scientific establishment, but subsequently confirmed worldwide in thousands of experiments, may finally be recognized as a revolutionary discovery of science. Cold Fusion may become hot news again.