Fusion Claim Generates Hope, Skepticism
By Michael White, AP Writer
The Associated Press

Friday, March 24, 1989, PM cycle

Two scientists say they have produced controlled nuclear fusion through basic chemistry, a claim that has evoked skepticism from other researchers.

But some also expressed hope that a long-sought source of clean, abundant energy may be on the horizon.

Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton in England and B. Stanley Pons, chairman of the University of Utah chemistry department, said their electrochemical process has produced a surplus of energy for periods of up to 100 hours.

They cautioned that more research is needed to determine whether the process will work on a large scale.

"What we have done is opened the door of a new research area," Fleischmann told a news conference Thursday. "Our indications are that the discovery will be relatively easy to make into a usable technology for generating heat and power."

Hoping that will be the case, the University of Utah has applied for patents.

Edward Teller, director emeritus of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and "the father of the hydrogen bomb," said he initially was skeptical, feeling that it could never happen, but, "I am extremely happy now because I see a very good chance that I was completely wrong."

Robert Sherman of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a fusion researcher for 14 years, said: "Based on the sketchy information I have, there's nothing to indicate they've really accomplished anything."

In fusion reactions, the nuclei of two heavy hydrogen atoms are combined to become the nucleus of a helium atom. The process releases a tremendous amount of energy.

Fusion occurs in the sun and in hydrogen bombs. But Pons said the new process can be carried out in simple glass flasks at room temperature.

Heavy water - water containing heavy hydrogen or deuterium - circulates between a negatively charged palladium metal rod and a positively charged platinum cylinder.

The electrical current drives deuterium nuclei (deuterons) into the lattice structure of the palladium. Pons says the lattice structure holds the deuterons close together long enough for fusion to occur.

The two scientists say the heat generated in the experiment shows that fusion has occurred.

"We took so much heat out, it cannot be accounted for in conventional chemical reactions," Fleischmann said.

The two said they have not measured the neutrons produced, and that makes Sherman and some of his colleagues skeptical.

"We don't see that (the process) gets the nuclei close enough to each other to interact," Sherman said. "If they're going to have fusion, they've got to show me they have neutrons of the right energy and the right time."

He said he and others have used palladium for years to purify hydrogen and "nobody has seen such a reaction."

Teller said his experience with palladium makes him think the process could work, and, if so, it "will be very significant for our knowledge of the solid state of metals and it may be very important for our energy production."

Pons said he and Fleischmann developed the technique after 5 1/2 years of research. They now are seeking a grant from the federal Department of Energy to continue their research.

For more than 30 years physicists worldwide have tried to produce controlled fusion, but at a cost of millions of dollars and with huge machines and lasers.

Meanwhile, other scientists said the experiment will have to be duplicated independently before the findings of Pons and Fleischmann can be accepted.

"People are pushing cold-temperature nuclear fusion quite vigorously these days. Like any science, this claim has to be reproducable. If it is indeed there, it is quite a discovery," said Chan Choi, a fusion researcher at Purdue University's School of Nuclear Engineering.

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