Cold fusion more and more persuasive

[Les Earnest]

[From UPI]
PROVO, Utah (UPI) -- Utah, New Mexico and Texas scientists conducting
studies deep inside a Colorado mine have measured neutron emissions from
their cold fusion experiments, a Brigham Young University physicist said
Wednesday.
The idea of going one-third mile underground was to eliminate any
problems with cosmic rays, said Steven Jones, a BYU associate professor
of physics who has been trying to unravel the phenomenon for seven
years.
The researchers are concerned about cosmic rays because they can
produce ``false signals'' in measuring equipment ``and the neutron
readings we're trying to measure are so small,'' said Jones.
With the ``background'' problems eliminated inside the lead-zinc
mine, Jones said, ``Yes, we did see neutrons, a statistically
significant signal, enough above background to be sure there's really a
true effect.''
Jones said he and Kevin Wolf of Texas A&M University and Howard
Menlove at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory all conducted
experiments inside the Colorado mine, and all measured neutron
emissions, a byproduct of nuclear reactions.
The BYU physicist began his research about the same time
electrochemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann started their
investigations of cold fusion at the University of Utah.
Pons and Fleischmann went public in March 1989, claiming they were
producing excess heat in a electrolytic cell containing palladium and
platinum electrodes immersed in heavy water, water composed of oxygen
and deuterium atoms. Deuterium is a form of hydrogen with an extra
neutron.
Jones, who uses deuterium gas and titanium instead of palladium in
his research funded by the U.S. Energy Department and the Electric Power
Research Institute, has been a critic of the Pons-Fleischmann claims.
``There is absolutely no experiment, not one, that has significant
nuclear products to account for the heat,'' he said. ``It appears
there's not one experiment that would establish (the heat)
quantitatively as being fusion.''
In a speech to BYU astronomy and physics students and faculty he said
all the cold fusion experiments ``point to either no effect or effects
that are far too small to support the claims that the heat is due to
fusion.''
According to Jones, the Pons-Fleischmann heat readings are ``in the
realm of a chemical explanation.'' The research indicates, he said, two
separate reactions -- a nuclear one producing neutrons and other
emissions, and a chemical one producing heat. Jones believes the Utah
researcher ``unfortunately overstated'' their discovery.
In the BYU experiment, the deuterium gas is absorbed by the titanium
metal. The small atoms are forced together in such tremendous
concentrations, he believes, that they fuse, spitting out neutrons. And
Jones said he is becoming ``more and more persuaded'' the reaction is
fusion.
His main effort has been to produce neutrons, partially because they
can have a practical application in cancer treatment. But he said,
``We'd still have to beef it up by quite a bit'' to produce enough
neutrons from his equipment for ``such applications as cancer therapy.''
Jones also said he finds ``the science exciting,'' and it has
attracted the attention of many top scientists. ``The goal is clearly to
get energy, if we can,'' he said.
``Fusion energy is an important goal for society,'' he said, and the
research conducted on the latest breakthrough ``may impact other types
of fusion research'' aimed at achieving controllable energy production
from the fusing of atoms.
``It isn't cut and dried yet. We've just opened the door. Let's see
where it leads,'' said Jones.
Similar research now is being conducted at numerous U.S. universities
and colleges, he said, and in Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy,
Japan, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

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Les Earnest Phone: 415 941-3984
Internet: L...@Go4.Stanford.edu USMail: 12769 Dianne Dr.
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