The New Energy Times OSTI Department of Energy "Cold Fusion" Archive
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Origin

On Aug. 13, 2013, Michael Ravnitzky, while serving as development editor for my book Fusion Fiasco, located a new Web page on the Department of Energy's Office of Science and Technical Information online library catalog . The page described a collection of records and documents regarding the "cold fusion" conflict. He submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the documents.

The processing of his request seems to have been handled in an atypical  manner. The catalogue reference was removed from the internet. Then, OSTI refused to accept the request for about one year, until the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) intervened. Once the request was accepted, it took more than 2.5 years for his request to receive a response, and the response was simply a blanket denial. He then submitted an administrative appeal . On Aug. 10, 2016, he received 96 documents from OSTI FOIA O fficer Madelyn M. Wilson.

Organization
The original documents had unique but nondescriptive filenames. I examined, date-coded, and identified each document. In some cases, I combined multiple related documents into single PDF files.

For ease of access, I sorted the files into four categories:

Group 1: The 1988 Pons-Fleischmann Funding Proposal to the DOE. This collection includes the first public-release of the Pons-Fleischmann proposal as well as the peer-review communications. The proposal, and the ensuing conflict with reviewer Steven E. Jones at Brigham Young University, precipitated and forced the public announcement by Pons and Fleischmann on March 23, 1989. (14 docs/283 pages)

Group 2: Documents directly related to the DOE, DOE labs, DOE "cold fusion" review, or information requested by the federal government. (25 docs/486 pages) Note that this archive includes very few records relating to the DOE-sponsored 1989 review of "cold fusion" research. A separate New Energy Times archive collection, contributed by Richard Garwin, a member of that review panel, is listed on the New Energy Times home page.

Group 3: Steven E. Jones documents (5 docs/112 pages)

Group 4: Letters and documents from the public and unsolicited proposals (34 docs/819 pages)

Steven B. Krivit
June 19, 2017

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We found another batch in 2022.

Group 5: More internal memos and reports from within DOE. More letters to DOE.

 

 
Group 1
19880829-PF-DOE-Proposal-and-Peer-Review-Combined
19880901-DOE-to-Pons-Ack-Receipt
19880909-PF-DOE-Proposal-Requests-to-Reviewers
19881008-PF-DOE-Proposal-Peer-Reviews-Ack
19881025-PF-DOE-Proposal-Peer-Reviews-to-PF
19881114-PF-DOE-Proposal-FP-Response-to-Reviewers
19881205-PF-DOE-Proposal-Response-to-Pons-by-Reviewers
19881208-PF-DOE-Proposal-Gajewski-Reviewer-Responses-to-Pons
19890123-Pons-Fleischmann-Rebuttal-to-Reviewers-Summary
19890131-Pons-to-DOE-Revised-Budget
19890313-DOE-to-Pons-Proposal-Approved
19890315-Pons-to-Gajewski-Regarding-Jones
19890414-Pons-to-DOE-Withdraw-Proposal
19890424-DOE-to-Pons-Withdraw-Proposal
 
Group 2
19890424-Watkins-Directives-to-DOE-labs
19890427-Watkins-Hunter-Hecker-LANL-Replication
19890500-Watkins-Lloyd
19890620-Bockris-Worldwide-Summary-to-Thompson
19890622-Bockris-Tritium-Paper-to-DOE
19890700-LLNL-George-Chapline-UCRL101583
19890720-ERAB-Interim-Report
19890810-Yeong-Kim-to-Huizenga
19890831-Rafelski-to-DOE
19890914-LLNL-Research-on-Cold-Fusion-UCID21809
19891022-LANL-Claytor-LAUR893946
19891025-ERAB-Faulkner-Garwin-Bockris-Iyengar
19891100-ORNL-Scott-ORNLTM11322
19891108-ERAB-Final
19900223-Chase-Peterson-False-Reasons-for-Press-Conference
19900301-Rafelski-Gajewski-Preproposal
19900322-ERAB-to-Watkins-Approval-of-ERAB-Report
19900405-LANL-Storms-LAUR90996
19900521-ORNL-Hutchinson-ORNLTM11356
19901022-LANL-Claytor-LAUR91631
19901022-LANL-Menlove-LAUR91339
19901022-LANL-Tuggle-LAUR94971
19920413-Kyotani-Technova-to-DOE
19961008-Bockris-to-DOE
19961018-1992-MITI-and-1996-ICCF6
 
Group 3
19900507-Jones-to-Briand
19910612-Jones-Tsarev-Worledge-Provo-Conference-Review
19910802-Jones-to-Bockris
19931209-BYU-Taylor-LAUR94970
19941011-Jones-to-DOE
 
Group 4
19890307-Vince-Vallquist-Muon-Fusion-to-DOE
19890430-John-Kizer-McEwen-Walker
19890502-Carolyn-Moore-to-Bush
19890517-Harold-Lewis-to-DOE
19890526-Don-Kelly-to-DOE
19890605-Weston-Stacey-DOE
19890609-William-Schafer-to-DOE
19890616-George-Hobby-Newman-Dingell
19890619-Milo-Rober-Gajewski-Kostmayer
19890622-Francisco-Pacheco-John-Pfanstiehl-Roukema
19890623-Walt-Anderson-to-DOE
19890714-David-Johannsen-to-Bush
19891025-Hendrik-Monkhorst-to-DOE
19900108-Magnus-Jandel-to-DOE
19900307-Mastaka-Mizushima-to-DOE
19900430-Mark-Goldes-to-DOE
19901116-Hal-Fox-to-DOE
19910419-Walter-Wagner-DOE
19910516-Don-Yansen-to-DOE
19911203-Frederick-Mayer-DOE
19930113-Robert-Bass-Happer-Garwin
19930510-Peter-Hagelstein-to-Lowell-Wood
19930521-David-Montgomery-to-Congress
19930819-William-Telander-Joe-Champion
19940215-Russ-George-to-DOE
19941119-ChubbT-to-DOE
19941220-ChubbT-to-DOE
19950327-Ben-Bush-Letter-Anaheim-Abstracts
19950328-Hal-Fox-to-DOE
19950608-Talbot-Chubb-Arata-to-DOE
19950721-Frank-Cotton-Bockris-Ward-DOE
19951213-Jed-Rothwell-Lobby-Efforts-to-DOE
19960909-George-Sponsler-to-DOE-Perkins-LLNL
19970410-ChubbT-to-DOE
 
Group 5
19890327-Fusion-in-Electrolytic-Charged-Palladium-Deuterium-Memo
19890328-Vince-Vallquist
19890400-Special-Cold-Fusion-Report-Memo
19890403-Activity-on-Cold-Fusion-Reported-Memo
19890405-Update-on-Room-Temperature-Fusion-Memo
19890411-Update-on-Cold-Fusion-Memo
19890424-Research-on-Cold-Fusion
19890427-HSS&T-Cold-Fusion-Hearing
19890500-Honorable-Marilyn-Lloyd
19890515-Professor-Lewis-on-Cold-Fusion-Memo
19890612-Interim-Cold-Fusion-Memo
19890616-Honorable-John-Dingell
19890619-Honorable-Peter-Kostmayer
19890622-Congresswoman-Roukema
19890711-Honorable-Robert-Walker
19890714-David-Johannsen
19921213-Will-Happer-Robert-Bass
19940818-Summary-of-Recent-Develp-in-Cold-Fusion