The 1989 discovery by Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton and Stanley Pons of the University of Utah of a low temperature method of fusing atomic nuclei, with the consequent release of huge amounts of energy. The process of nuclear fusion, much sought after because of its promise of virtually endless amounts of energy free of the radioactive waste problems of traditional nuclear power plants, was hitherto believed only to be possible at extremely high temperatures, around 100 million degrees Celsius. Working at such high temperatures was very difficult and expensive, and no practical solution to the problems of doing so had been found nor were they likely to be found in the foreseeable future. If Pons and Fleischmann were right, the high-temperature approach would be bypassed and the world\u2019s energy problems might be over.<\/p>\n
The process of cold fusion was a simple one. It consisted of an electrolytic cell containing water that had more than the usual proportion of heavy water\u2014water in which the usual hydrogen atoms are replaced by deuterium, the isotope of hydrogen, which is twice the usual weight, (D20 instead of H20). The cell has palladium electrodes. On current being passed, both hydrogen and deuterium were released at the cathode (the negative electrode). The experimenters believed that the palladium absorbed the deuterium atoms, forcing them sufficiently close together to cause them to fuse. In support of their claim, they said that they had detected neutrons being emitted to be expected if fusion occurs and that surprisingly large amounts of heat were produced.<\/p>\n
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The 1989 discovery by Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton and Stanley Pons of the University of Utah of a low temperature method of fusing atomic nuclei, with the consequent release of huge amounts of energy. The process of nuclear fusion, much sought after because of its promise of virtually endless amounts of energy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c"],"yoast_head":"\n