AN ASTUTE LETTER ON COLD FUSION TO THE IEEE US ACTIVITIES BOARD
Courtesy of John Sinclair
To: IEEE US Activities Board
Piscataway, N.J. 08855-1331
Friends,
As a Life Member of IEEE I have a strong interest in the advice we give President Clinton or Congress. I note that we have not, to my knowledge raised objection to the recent DOE policy of opposition to research on cold fusion. DOE is not funding research on cold fusion and is threatening to cancel other kinds of contracts with groups who undertake cold fusion work. There is also a stop order preventing the U.S. Patent Office from issuing patents on cold fusion, though a single patent was issued to Patterson before the shutdown.
The patent offices in Japan, Europe, and elsewhere are doing a landrush business. Many workers in the field report positive results and fully expect large scale commercial production in less than five years.
Cold fusion is being developed by relatively small entities with limited funding. It seems to offer an energy source with negligible pollution, small levels of radiation, low capital cost per unit of energy production, and negligible cost of materials. It also lends itself to the production of very small units suitable for automobiles and individual residences.
We at IEEE will look like fools if we don't get off the dime and back this important work. The U.S. Magnetic and Inertial confinement experiments have cost in the billions and are unlikely to produce a practical working system for another 10 years at least. The Department of Energy should be helping to fund cold fusion. Otherwise the U.S. is likely to be farther behind other industrialized countries than it is already.
I would appreciate a response from the Board.
Sincerely,
John G. Sinclair Jr.
Life Member IEEE
[Two Editorial comments:
Patterson has received three or more patents from the U.S. Office of Patents and Trademarks, because he asked for special handling due to his age. His first cold fusion patent was issued long after the "mole" was placed in the patent office to prevent the issuance of cold fusion patents.
Now that we know how much of the thermal energy is produced in cold fusion, we can shortcut the cold fusion process and go directly to the creation of nuclear reactions. (Shoulders paper presented at the second conference on Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, Sept.13-14, 1997, College Station, Texas). This discovery puts the production of energy right in the hands of all electronikers. The IEEE ought to be highly interested.
Editor.]
www.padrak.com/ine/NEN_4_11_7.html
Mar. 17, 1997.