Nuclear Fusion [editorial]

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If, in fact, two electrochemists, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, have stumbled onto the secret of producing an inexhaustible supply of cheap, clean energy through nuclear fusion, they will indeed rank forever alongside history's scientific superstars. But it is too soon to leap to such a conclusion.

The two scientists believe they have achieved a fusion reaction - the melding of two atoms into one with an attendant release of energy using apparatus scarcely more than a jar of water and a car battery. Their experiment produced four times as much energy as it consumed, a spectacular accomplishment if confirmed.

Within a matter of days, other scientists around the globe claimed to have repeated the process, with widely varying results in the level of energy generated.

During the last four decades, the scientific world has spent nearly $20 billion trying to harness fusion.

Nearly all of the experimentatfon has focused on compressing atoms with the very high levels of force thought necessary to overcome the mutually repellent electrical charges that characterize the nuclei of atoms.

But Pons and Fleischmann may have exploited a quirk of quantum mechanics to achieve "cold fusion."

If so, they have pulled off the scientific breakthrough of the century. Their tabletop device fuses atoms through a simple process that still defies explanation, even by its inventors. It is, in fact, an experiment in search of a hypothesis.

The implications of these findings, if proved, are limitless. In theory, fusion produced with plentiful seawater could readily supply an endless amount of practically free, safe energy for all power needs, liberating mankind from the mounting environmental damage caused by burning fossil fuels and reliance on fission reactors.

In short, if the two unheard-of chemists have pointed the way to the practical application of fusion, their feat is more monumental than the invention of steam power and the internal-combustion engine combined.

It's prudent to remain skeptical until the work has been verified. But as Ben Franklin's contemporaries could not foresee the potential of electricity, neither can we grasp the future of fusion power.

All that is certain is that, if today's discovery pans out, tomorrow's world will be a very different place.

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