Introduction: On 23 March 1989, electrochemists M. Fleischmann and S. Pons claimed in a press conference at the University of Utah that they had achieved nuclear fusion in a tabletop chemistry experiment. Since then, evidence of fusion in what is now called low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) research has grown only slightly stronger. Their hypothesis that a novel form of thermonuclear fusion was responsible for their experimental results is still unproved. On the contrary, LENR experiments have continued to demonstrate increasingly convincing evidence for some sort of nuclear process or processes – though not necessarily fusion – year after year. . | Cold Fusion - Precursor to Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions SB Krivit New Energy Times San Rafael CA USA 2009 Elsevier . All rights reserved. Introduction On 23 March 1989 electrochemists M. Fleischmann and S. Pons claimed in a press conference at the University of Utah that they had achieved nuclear fusion in a tabletop chemistry experiment. Since then evidence of fusion in what is now called low-energy nuclear reaction LENR research has grown only slightly stronger. Their hypothesis that a novel form of thermonuclear fusion was responsible for their experimental results is still unproved. On the contrary LENR experiments have continued to demonstrate increasingly convincing evidence for some sort of nuclear process or processes - though not necessarily fusion - year after year. The suggestion that LENR research represented a new form of thermonuclear fusion has caused significant confusion. The two fields thermonuclear fusion and LENR research and their respective sets of phenomena are very different. Therefore direct comparisons between the two are irrelevant. Thermonuclear Fusion Thermonuclear fusion has been well understood since the 1930s. Two of the pioneering researchers were Ernest Rutherford from Cambridge and Niels Bohr from Denmark. When two deuterium nuclei are brought together with sufficient energy to overcome their electromagnetic repulsion the strong force takes effect and causes a fusion reaction. Slightly less than 50 of the time this reaction branch occurs D D 3He MeV n MeV . Also slightly less than 50 of the time this reaction branch occurs D D T MeV p MeV . And with less than 1 probability a fusion reaction results in this branch D D 4He MeV gamma ray MeV . At the University of Utah press conference M. Fleischmann and S. Pons asserted that they had attained nuclear fusion but they were more conservative in their preliminary note in which they asked whether a novel fusion process could be responsible. Also in their
