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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Cold versus hot fusion deuterium branching ratios

Conference ·
OSTI ID:465068
;  [1]
  1. Fusion Information Center, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

A major source of misunderstanding of the nature of cold nuclear fusion has been the expectation that the deuterium branching ratios occurring within a palladium lattice would be consistent with the gas-plasma branching ratios. This misunderstanding has led to the concept of the dead graduate student, the 1989`s feverish but fruitless search for neutron emissions from cold fusion reactors, and the follow-on condemnation of the new science of cold fusion. The experimental facts are that in a properly loaded palladium lattice, the deuterium fusion produces neutrons at little above background, a greatly less-than-expected production of tritium (the tritium desert), and substantially more helium-4 than is observed in hot plasma physics. The experimental evidence is now compelling (800 reports of success from 30 countries) that cold nuclear fusion is a reality, that the branching ratios are unexpected, and that a new science is struggling to be recognized. Commercialization of some types of cold fusion devices has already begun.

OSTI ID:
465068
Report Number(s):
CONF-950905--; ISBN 0-7803-2969-4
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English