More local news and a question

[Mark Muhlestein]

The following article appeared Thursday, Nov. 15, 1990 in the
Provo, Utah Daily Herald. It is reproduced here without permission.

BYU professor challenges `cold fusion' claim

by Robb Hicken
Herald Staff Writer

A Brigham Young University professor offered evidence Wednesday
challenging the credibility of the University of Utah's ``cold fusion''
experiment.

Steven E. Jones, a professor of physics, said that while the ``cold
fusion'' experiment produced some reaction, it was not enough to
generate heat.

In the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Brigham Young University,
Jones discussed cold nuclear fusion, or as he termed it, ``anomalous
nuclear effects.''

Jones presented evidence he and other researchers recently collected in
a deep lead mine near Leadville, Colo., which they believe proves
nuclear fusion reactions can occur.

``Our results do not support these claims that the excess heat is due to
fusion,'' he said. ``Our interpretation of the results refute the
claims that there was fusion because (the number of neutrons produced)
were far to [sic] small.''

Jones, working with Kevin Wolf of Texas A&M University and Howard
Menlove of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, conducted
experiments in the mine, 600 meters below the surface, to rule out the
effects of cosmic rays.

Using special sensor equipment designed by Menlove, all three scientists
detected neutrons, indicators of fusion reactions, but the levels
recorded were far below what would be needed to product heat.

The experiments, which were done above ground as well as in the lead
mine in Leadville, Colo., used deuterium and tritium.

While the results are not trivial, the scientists still don't understand
why there are such large bursts of neutrons produced, Jones said.

Preparation of materials, and the use of the mine, were done to avoid
any ``background'' disturbances which could invalidate the findings.

While the finding of the neutrons is not significant enough to produce
energy, it certainly ``makes you want to look at it a little more,''
Jones said.

He described the discovery as significant, but in the range of how to
control the materials, produce enough to generate heat, and create a new
wave of the future, it was only scratching the surface.

``You can compare it to traveling to Mars,'' Jones said. ``In nuclear
fission we are about 25 million miles in space. With nuclear fusion we
are only a third of an inch off the ground.''

University of Utah researcher B. Stanley Pons and his British colleague
Martin Fleischmann announced March 23, 1989 that they had achieved cold
fusion in a simple table-top cell powered by a car battery.

Difficulties in reproducing the two chemists' findings have brought
considerable skepticism among scientists, said Jones. He used statistics
from around the world that showed the number of neutrons produced were
insignificant.

Jones has been studying cold fusion for more than seven years and
receives funding from the Department of Energy and the Electric Power
Research Institute.

Jones was a presenter at at recent international conference at BYU that
attracted 150 scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New
Mexico, Texas A&M University, the Reiss Foundation in Massachusetts, the
University of Hawaii, Purdue University, the University of Arizona, and
others in the United States. Presenters also visited from research
centers in Japan, Germany, Italy, China, the Soviet Union, Canada and
Yugoslavia.

They discussed ``Anomalous Nuclear Effects in Deuterium/Solid
Systems.''

***** END OF ARTICLE *****

The article appeared on the front page, accompanied by a photo showing
Jones explaining a diagram of the experimental setup.

It's been over a year and a half now, and even though the evidence
looks pretty grim for cold fusion, I still have this flicker of
hope from time to time. In any case, it has been interesting.

Can anybody say when and under what circumstances the patents that
have been filed will be made public? Does a patent have to be granted
first?
--

Mark Muhlestein @ Sanyo/Icon

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