Cold fusion

Cold fusion is an hypothesized nuclear reaction that occurs at room temperature. Current technology has not demonstrated any such phenomenon, and there is no satisfactory theory to suggest it's even possible. The idea is to develop a power source that produces more energy than it consumes and is small, safe and portable.

Normally fusion reactions require enormously high temperatures similar to those found in the center of the sun. Temperatures that high are difficult to sustain because the energy dissipates quickly and also because thermonuclear temperatures instantly vaporize containment materials, hence the quixotic quest for cold fusion, which wouldn't have those problems.

How Real Fusion Works

Nuclei are composed of neutrons and positively-charged protons. When two nuclei approach each other, a large electrostatic repulsion occurs between the positive charges. To overcome this repulsion, the nuclei must have very high kinetic energies. Then they can get sufficiently close that the strong nuclear force can overcome the electrostatic force, allowing the colliding nuclei to bind together, or fuse.

From the Kinetic Theory of Gases, we know that the kinetic energy of particles is related directly to the temperature of the gas. Temperatures in the millions of degrees kelvin are required to obtain fusion of the hydrogen nucleus, which is composed of only one proton. Nuclei of larger number of protons require even greater temperatures.

See also

• Nuclear power
• Nuclear fission
• Nuclear fusion
• Fusion power

External links

• The most recent mainstream journal cold fusion paper: Revisiting the cold case of cold fusion, Nature (May, 2019), blog analysis by Abd.
• Status of cold fusion (2010), Edmund Storms, Naturwissenschaften, 2010. Preprint. Invited review of the field.
• Obituary for Martin Fleischmann, Washington Post, 2012.
• Cold fusion died 25 years ago, but the research lives on. Chemical & Engineering News (American Chemical Society), 2016, confuses cold fusion with Mills' hydrino research, not claimed to be cold fusion.
• Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments, Nature, May 2019
• Google’s $10 Million Cold Fusion Project Has Failed, Futurism, May 2019
• Lessons from cold fusion, 30 years on, Nature, May 2019
• Barry Kort blog and self-published commentary, 2010-2011. [archived to history, see list here]