Two 'Cold-Fusion' Scientists Still Insist New Data Will Confirm Their Claims
By Richard L. Hudson and Jerry E. Bishop
The Wall Street Journal

July 3, 1989

The two chemists whose "cold fusion" experiments set off a world-wide controversy reiterated their intention to publish new data confirming their claims of achieving hydrogen nuclear fusion at room temperatures.

The two scientists, B. Stanley Pons of the University of Utah and Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton, England, said their new report will demonstrate in much more detail than previously that their simple laboratory fusion device produced more energy as heat than it consumed electrically.

The researchers, who have avoided contact with reporters for several weeks, were interviewed by telephone at Mr. Fleischmann's home near Salisbury, England, where they've secluded themselves to finish writing their scientific paper. Other than to say that their paper confirms their earlier work and rebuts their critics, the pair declined to say where or when the paper will be published or to hint at its contents. Messrs. Pons and Fleischmann said several weeks ago they expected to have data from new experiments by July and to publish the data perhaps as early as August.

Meanwhile, at least two big companies indicated they haven't yet written off the possibility that Messrs. Pons and Fleischmann had produced room-temperature hydrogen fusion.

The University of Utah and General Electric Co. announced a collaboration under which GE is assigning four of its scientists to work with Messrs. Pons and Fleischmann. And Johnson Matthey PLC, the big British precious-metals producer, said it is considering broadening its collaboration with the two "cold-fusion" scientists.

"We're retaining an open mind on the whole field" of room-temperature fusion, said Bruce Tofield, director of Johnson Matthey's research center in Sonning Common, England.

The university's agreement with GE calls for one full-time GE scientist to work in Mr. Pons's laboratory at the university in Salt Lake City while three other GE researchers will devote full time to fusion research at the company's laboratory in Schenectady, N.Y. Their efforts are "aimed at unraveling what processes might be taking place in the electrochemical cells operating at Utah and Schenectady," the company said.

"This undertaking doesn't indicate any confirmation or lack of confirmation by GE of a fusion process but rather is an indication of the importance to humanity that any fusion or nuclear transformation process might have, should such be possible," a GE statement said.

Regarding collaborations with other industrial companies, the university's director of technology transfer, Norman Brown, said: "We are in contact with a number of companies, and discussions are taking place, but nothing is imminent."

Details of Johnson Matthey's collaboration haven't yet been fully worked out with the University of Utah, Mr. Tofield said, although it could involve assigning a few of the company's 200 researchers in Sonning Common to fusion experiments. Johnson Matthey from the beginning has been loaning to scientists, including Messrs. Pons and Fleischman, the palladium rods and platinum wires that are the core components of the electrochemical fusion devices. "It's important to us, as the major precious-metals company, to understand" the experiments, Mr. Tofield said.

Mr. Pons said he expects Johnson Matthey would help analyze the palladium rods and platinum wires, after they've been used in an experiment, to see if there is evidence that hydrogen atoms actually fused inside the palladium rods. The GE scientists, Mr. Pons said, may focus on maximizing the energy output of the electrochemical cells and the problems of scaling them up to larger sizes.

The collaborations wouldn't give either company exclusive rights to the Utah technology. But if the fusion claims prove true, the companies obviously would have a jump on competitors by being in on the research in its early stages.

So far, only three other laboratories -- at Stanford University, Texas A&M University and an independent experiment at the University of Utah's College of Mines -- have produced what appears to be excess heat with similar electrochemical experiments. None of these researchers, however, is yet claiming that the heat comes from hydrogen fusion. Some laboratories, including one at Texas A&M and one at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, have reported hints of fusion taking place but haven't measured heat output.

Otherwise, most of the hundreds of scientists who rushed to their labs in March and April haven't been able to reproduce the Fleischmann-Pons experiments.

(In accordance with Title 17, Section 107, of the U.S. Code, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. New Energy Times has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of the original text in this article; nor is New Energy Times endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on New Energy Times may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.