A REVIEW OF RESEARCH IN 'COLD FUSION' AND ITS IMPACT ON ENERGY CONSERVATION

摘要

During the past six years, cold fusion enhancement through a variety of research techniques has grown at a rapid rate to the point where it now can be regarded as a major field of endeavor, a second generation heat transfer technology. Observations have been made of deuteron-deuteron (d-d) fusion at room temperature during low-voltage electrolytic infusion of deuterons into metallic titanium or palladium electrodes. Neutrons with and energy of approximately 2.5 MeV were detected with a sensitive neutron spectrometer at a rate of 2 × 10-3 n/s, which cannot be accounted for by ambient-neutron background variations. These reactions have been known to yield an excited helium nucleus (~4He) with approximately 23.8 MeV excess energy, where d + d = ~4He + energy. In most successful experiments, 1% to 50% more heat than the input of electric power into the electrolytic cells has been recorded. These experiments are being successfully repeated on an international basis. Some of these results and various theories proposed to explain this phenomena are presented. Possible applications of "cold fusion" technology are given, and its impact on energy conservation is discussed.