josh@klaatu.rutgers.edu (J Storrs Hall) (03/24/89)
Two messages culled from sci.physics: From: glenn@vlsi.ll.mit.edu (Glenn Chapman) Subject: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications? Keywords: fusion deuterium power A very astounding breakthrough just may have been made in nuclear fusion. According to both the Financial Times (Mar 23, pg. 1, 26, and 22) and the Wall Street Journal (Mar. 23, b1 & b8) two scientist will announce indications of room temperature fusion of heavy hydrogen (deuterium) inside a solid material today at the University of Utah. These are not off the wall guys - the FT points out that both are experimental experts in electrochemistry (Dr. Martin Fleischmann of Southampton University UK, Dr. Stan Pons of University of Utah). Fleischmann is also a fellow of the Royal Society in London. I will summarize the articles but suggest that you get hold of the FT one (the WSJ was written by someone who really does not know the details). I have added some physics info to make it more understandable. The process they are using consists of the following. Consider an electrochemical cell (like a battery) with a platinum electrode, a heated palladium electrode in a bath of heavy water (deuterium oxide). Flow current from the palladium (negative electrode) to the platinum electrode (positive one). At some current the deuterium flow into the palladium, combined with the effect of the material itself, causes the deuterium nuclei to come together and fuse into helium 3 plus a neutron (with 3.27 MeV of energy) or tritium plus hydrogen (with 4.03 MeV, 1 MeV = 1.6E-13 Joules of energy). (My speculation the fusion processes here are not certain). To show the real strangeness here note that the repulsive forces from the positive charges on the two nuclei normally require temperatures of 50 - 100 Million degrees to overcome (high temp. mean the atoms are travelling very fast and so when they collide they overcome the repulsion to get close enough together to have fusion occur). This room temp. result is obviously very unusual. What really indicates that fusion has occurred is that the FT article states they saw fusion products, gamma rays, tritium and neutrons, none of which are generated by chemical processes. It is especially the neutrons that are important - that shows that fusion occurred. People at the UK Atomic Energy Authority say they know of the work and are treating it seriously. The article has been submitted to the British science journal Nature. Just my own speculation but one thing that may agree with this is that there is a material called Zeolite which stores hydrogen at densities higher than that of liquid hydrogen. This shows that solids can force hydrogen atoms closer together than they normally would be. There is a news conference that will be held today at U of Utah. If there is anyone who can get more information on this please send it to me. Glenn Chapman MIT Lincoln Lab glenn@ll-vlsi.arpa glenn@vlsi.ll.mit.edu ------------------------------------------------------------ From: bugboy@Portia.Stanford.EDU (Michael Frank) Subject: Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications? Summary: Sounds like an April Fools' joke to me I'm wathing an interview with the discoverers right now on MacNeil-Lehrer. You know, it just sounds too good to be true. Maybe these guys are pulling an elaborate April Fools' joke. Either that, or it's going to be bigger than the high-temperature superconductors. Guaranteed Nobel prizes. But anyway, these guys say they've had bottles producing heat continuously for hundreds of hours in experiments over the last year, and that their experiments could essentially be duplicated using the resources of a high school chemistry classroom. It's just too good to be true. Anyone see "Back to the Future?" remember the "Mr. Fusion" blender-sized device? That's basically what these guys have developed. You put heavy water in, you get gobs of energy out. Just think, governments have spent $billions upon billions on nuclear fusion research using Tokomaks and high-powered lasers, and here these chemists do it at room temperature in their kitchen. Anyway, I'm anxiously waiting to see whether this can be duplicated. -- ,-------M-i-c-h-a-e-l---F-r-a-n-k------------------------------------------. | AI Stanford Microsoft philosophy Alas,Babylon Chattanooga,TN | | Amiga swimming Star Trek Pink Floyd nanotechnology Gainesville,FL | `-----------b-u-g-b-o-y-@-p-o-r-t-i-a-.-s-t-a-n-f-o-r-d-.-e-d-u------------'