Japanese Scientist Demonstrates Cold Fusion

Osaka University emeritus physics professor Yoshiaki Arata demonstrated his cold fusion process to a group of about 60 people recently.

The process consisted of Arata and his co-researcher Yue-Chang Zhang, forcing deuterium gas under pressure into an evacuated cell. The cell contains palladium dispersed in zirconium oxide. Arata claims the deuterium is absorbed by the Palladium sample to produce dense or "pynco" deuterium. The deuterium nuclei are then close enough to fuse releasing heat and helium. After the injection of deuterium gas, the temperature rose to about 70 °C, which according to Arata was due to both chemical and nuclear reactions. With the gas turned off the temperature in the centre of the cell remained significantly warmer than the cell wall for 50 hours. __AzoNano

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Jed Rothwell, who is editor of the US site LENR (Low Energy Nuclear Reactions) and who has long thought that cold-fusion research shows promise, said that after Arata had started the injection of gas, the temperature rose to about 70 °C, which according to Arata was due to both chemical and nuclear reactions. When the gas was shut off, the temperature in the centre of the cell remained significantly warmer than the cell wall for 50 hours. This, according to Arata, was due solely to nuclear fusion.

Rothwell also pointed out that Arata performed three other control experiments: hydrogen with the ZrO2–Pd sample (no lasting heat); deuterium with no ZrO2–Pd sample (no heating at all); and hydrogen with no ZrO2–Pd sample (again, no heating). Nevertheless, Rothwell added that Arata neglected to mention certain details, such as the method of calibration. "His lecture was very difficult to follow, even for native speakers, so I may have overlooked something," he wrote.

It will be interesting to see what other scientists think of Arata's demonstration. Last week Augustin McEvoy, a retired condensed-matter physicist who has studied Arata's previous cold-fusion experiments in detail said that he has found "no conclusive evidence of excess heat" before, though he would like to know how this demonstration turned out. __NextEnergyNews

The fact that cold fusion research has survived in reputable institutions this long after the mainstream turned its back on the procedure, suggests that some phenomenon is taking place that is not terribly easy to explain away.

The best question to ask may be: "If cold fusion does indeed produce a small amount of excess heat, what is the greatest benefit that we can expect to derive from cold fusion, other than a basic scientific understanding?" Of course, no one can know the answer to that question. It is almost the same question as "Of what use is a newborn baby?" No one can truly know until it grows up and speaks for itself.