Opinions on "Cold Fusion"?

[tligon]

Experiments in which wholesale transmutation of electrode metal have reportedly occurred were what caught my attention.

I must necessarily suspect a single report of this, and would want to check on the "kook index" of the person reporting it. Let's say this ... if the result is reproducible, the experiment is designed so that contamination can be eliminated, and the results are meticulously reviewed, then transmutation pretty much settles the issue.

But as always, alchemy requires exceptionally rigorous peer review.

Just recalling off the top of my head from a decade or more back, I believe Miley did personally review this particular finding.

[Hector]

Tom is right. This is what makes me think the process is a form of fusion, but instead of having to muscle it's way through the repulsive forces, it simply finesses it's way around the issue. Since most people agree that the energy released in nuclear reactions is the binding energy, such a mechanism would produce little output power compared to hot fusion processes.

That's just my opinion.

[Starfire]

Q.E.D.

[Hector]

Yeah exactly.

[Chris Bradley]

Hector wrote:
> Since most people agree that the energy released in nuclear reactions is the binding energy, such a mechanism would produce little output power compared to hot fusion processes.
I'm sorry but I don't quite understand what you are saying here. The kinetic energy of the fast ions just before they fuse is a small fraction of the binding energy released. If a 'colder' process is performed (e.g. muon catalysed is done at cryogenic temperatures) the actual fusion energy released is still the same.

[Hector]

Okay so correct me if I'm wrong but this is what I meant.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... ucbin.html


Hector