MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS IN COLD FUSION
Dana Richard Rotegard, MCFA
December 7, 1995.
From: NEN, Vol. 3, No. 8, January 1996, pp. 5-6.
Major European Patent Grant
The European patent office has issued a Notice of Intent to grant the Pons-Fleischmann patent for cold fusion. Filed by the University of Utah in 1989, this cold fusion patent (and over 200 others) has been denied by the U.S. patent office. The University of Utah has licensed this patent to ENECO (formerly Fusion Energy Applied Technology Inc.) of Salt Lake City. ENECO's science board includes several prominent cold fusion scientists including Dr. Richard Oriani of the University of Minnesota and Dr. Ed Storms formerly of LANL. The late Minoru Toyoda, founder of Toyota Motors tried to acquire this patent filing from the University of Utah. Beside being another vindication for Drs. Fleischmann and Pons, this patent grant signals a change in official attitudes toward cold fusion science in Europe.
Italian Industrial Backing
FIAT sponsored a small cold fusion gathering from October 11-13 in Asti, Italy, of about 40 intentionally prominent cold fusion researchers including Dr. Storms of ENECO. After the conference FIAT announced sponsorship of Dr. Piantelli's cold fusion research.
Japanese MITI Increases Cold Fusion Commitment
The Japanese government announced an increase from $30 million to $100 million of its cold fusion R&D budget. The program is administered through MITI with labs based in Sapporo near the Toyota R&D effort and at the University of Hokkaido. According to Dr. Hal Fox, editor of Fusion Facts and NEN, over 100 cold fusion patents have been granted in Japan, including the "ceramic" cold fusion patent of Dr. Mizuno (sponsored by Mitsubishi). Dr. Mizuno lectured at the University of Minnesota in June where ceramic cold fusion research continues under the direction of Dr. Oriani.
Prototype Demonstrated at University of Illinois
The University of Illinois and the American Nuclear Society convention witnessed a major demonstration when Clean Energy Technology, Inc., unveiled a 20 watt light-water cold fusion cell operating at a 70 to 1 energy profit. C.E.T.I's Drs. Cravens and Patterson had demonstrated the same technology in Monte Carlo in April. Dr. George Miley, the editor of the respected Fusion Technology and several University of Illinois graduate assistants monitored the experiment's calorimetry and setup. Dr. Cravens hopes to upscale this heat source to near a kilowatt and prototype an electric car battery recharger in early 1996.
The Media Sleeps
Despite mainstream front-page coverage of these developments in Italy and Japan, there has been little coverage, either printed or electronic, of these developments in the United States. "Science on Friday"'s Ira Flato on NPR covered the CETI demonstration. Otherwise, little science news on these major developments has appeared outside specialized American cold fusion newsletters such as Cold Fusion Times, Ed. Dr. M. Swartz; Fusion Facts, Ed. Dr. H. Fox; and Infinite Energy, Ed. Dr. E. Mallove.
The Cold Fusion Electric Car
Major work on Cold Fusion as a power source for electric cars is underway in the R&D labs of several major international auto manufacturers led by Toyota, the sponsors of Dr. Fleischmann and Pons lab near Nice, France. The American "Big Three" of GM, Ford, and Chrysler continue to fight electric car mandates in Massachusetts, New York, and California. Quite clearly, the executives of American auto companies are ignoring the example of their overseas competition and the cutting edge scientific developments that could make internal combustion technology economically obsolete.
Third Wave Energy Activism
Under the provisions of the Massachusetts Clean Air Act, by 1998, 2% of Massachusetts' new cars must be emissionless. A variety of small companies have emerged in the so called "platinum perimeter" outside Boston to capture this market. I visited the labs of Jet Technology, in Wellesley Hills last November, for close talks on this subject with Dr. Mitchell Swartz. This summer a coalition of entrepreneurs, economic futurists, environmental groups such as MASSPIRG, and medical lobbies such as the American Lung Association successfully defended the electric car mandates from an attempted rollback by Detroit. Cold fusion and breakthroughs in zero point energy technology make it possible that market forces will soon end the age of fossil fuel.