A COLD FUSION REVIEW Courtesy of the author (Edmund Storms).
Edmund Storms, "Review of the 'Cold Fusion' Effect," accepted for publication in J. of Scientific Exploration, 1996, 62 manuscript pages, 190 refs, 10 tables, 12 figs.
AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT
More than 190 studies reporting evidence for the "cold fusion" effect are evaluated. New work has answered criticisms by eliminating many of the suggested errors. Evidence for large and reproducible energy generation as well as various nuclear reactions, in addition to fusion, from a variety of environments and methods is accumulating. The field can no longer be dismissed by invoking obvious error or prosaic explanations.
AUTHOR'S LIST OF CONCLUSIONS
1. Excess energy is generated without producing significant chemical products. Several studies claim power densities near 3 kW/cm3 Pd, total energies in excess of 200 MJ and power amplification over 1,000 times. Evidence for local melting of palladium has been observed. Therefore, energy can be produced at rates and in amounts well above the result of any conceivable chemical reaction or plausible error. This experience indicates that commercial application is highly probable.
2. Energy can be created by several methods, in at least nine different chemical environments. Therefore, the effect has a general nature and is not unique to palladium or to deuterium.
3. Significant helium (4He) is found after anomalous heat is produced in environments containing deuterium. Therefore, at least one heat-producing nuclear reaction is probably a complex and unusual form of d-d fusion. Evidence for other types of nuclear reaction has been obtained.
4. Neutrons and tritium are occasionally produced but in amounts too small to account for measurable energy. Therefore, an explanation for excess energy must involve different products. In addition, commercial applications will not be handicapped by these hazardous products.
5. Largely absent are gamma-rays, X-rays, and radiation produced when energetic neutrons or tritons pass through matter. Therefore, the released nuclear energy is at least partially coupled by some strange process to many atoms rather than to individual reaction products.
6. Emission of high-energy charged-particles and 2.5 MeV neutrons show that regions exist in which the nuclear reaction energy is not coupled to individual particles. Therefore, nuclear products can leave the surface without coupling their energy to the atomic lattice.
7. The neutron, tritium, helium, charged-particle, gamma-ray, and high-Z elements are produced under different conditions largely independent of each other. Therefore, a variety of different environments can produce different nuclear reactions.
8. Presence of light water in the heavy water stops energy production without producing 3He. Therefore, heat is not produced by d-p fusion in this environment.
9. Heat generation using D2O is independent of whether 6Li or 7Li is used and is sometimes independent of whether lithium is present at all.
10. Application of RF frequencies at certain values, but especially near 82 MHz, are said to enhance heat production in Pd-D2O cells. Application of micropulses of very high current are also very successful. Therefore, application of energy enhances the effect.
11. Tritium is produced in electrolyte and helium is produced in the gas during electrolysis of palladium. Therefore, both nuclear processes occur within the surface region of the metal, not within the bulk.