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Cold Fusion Holds Potential Answer for Energy Problems
By Sheena Chen, Contributing Writer
The Daily Californian

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

While fossil fuels are being depleted rapidly in the modern world, scientists see an opportunity for testing out cleaner and safer power sources in the form of low-energy nuclear reactions. One UC Berkeley researcher is getting to the root of the possibility and also trying to prove the existence of cold fusion.

The term cold fusion describes the process of combining multiple atomic nuclei to form a heavier nucleus, which consequently releases excess energy. It stands apart from normal nuclear fusion in that cold fusion occurs at room temperature and normal pressure, whereas the former procedure would require a million pounds of force and thousands of degrees.

"I've seen enough reports where people saw positive results that it seems the only way to really know is to try it myself," said Winthrop Williams, an instructional lab developer and staff member in the electrical engineering and computer science department at UC Berkeley.

For background, Williams mentions the Fleischman-Pons experiment of 1989, in which two scientists published a research report on their observed success of producing chemically catalyzed. This implied that it could be a novel power source, leading to many attempted duplication experiments around the world.

The announcement later generated controversy over the actual existence of cold fusion. Critics debated on a number of issues including conformity to scientific theories, the researchers' credentials and accuracy in experimental data.

"There was so much media hype that it ended up clouding the real scientific issue," Williams said.

Williams was inspired by one report led by researcher Yasuhiro Iwamura, who observed the conception of new elements by permeating deuterium gas through palladium foil. Palladium and deuterium were not the only elements used in experiments but their properties made them ideal for results.

According to the abstract, deuterium gas was permeated through palladium foil at 158 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately one week in a vacuum chamber. Having added the chemical element strontium to the surface, a week later an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy apparatus mounted on the chamber detected the presence of molybdenum isotope.

Finding such an isotope demonstrated that its emergence from the original element used was a deviation from standard chemical theory.

"That's not something one would expect based on our current understanding of chemistry and physics. Atoms (stable isotopes, to be precise) are normally immutable unless you have high energy like in particle accelerators," he said.

Williams wishes to reproduce the experiment to know "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that cold fusion exists. He has already amassed materials to build the gas permeation apparatus and is currently perfecting his skill at the sputtering tool, which applies thin layers of metal to a surface.

He plans to also experiment with palladium and deuterium gas, though past reports have shown that they aren't the only elements used.

Williams hopes to bridge the communications gap in the cold fusion controversy. It may also spell out possible future commercial applications. Because cold fusion does not appear to produce radiation or radioactive waste, it may become a clean new energy source.

"Currently we say the only way to have a nuclear power plant is a big centralized, dangerous machine. It may be possible to make compact or distributed energy sources this way," said Williams.

More than a decade ago he had already performed an experiment to investigate claims of cold fusion. Though the experiment was inconclusive, he is searching for other solutions.

"I think that anything that changes people's beliefs causes them to question other beliefs they have. If I can get a positive result then I'll know for sure that it is real and maybe that's all we can ever know," he said.

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