3 ms·
Do the names "Fieschmann" and "Pons" ring any bells? Here is the wikipedia article that covers these recent developments. Look in the "Later Research" section
by willis936 5y ago
Do the names "Fieschmann" and "Pons" ring any bells? Here is the wikipedia article that covers these recent developments. Look in the "Later Research" section.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion
- DennisP 5y agoThe NASA research isn't mentioned there. Differences from cold fusion: they're hitting the lattice with gamma rays, and seeing 2.45MeV neutrons come out. Doesn't mean they'll achieve net power this way, or that the lattice will survive the neutrons at practical fusion rates, but they seem to be seeing D-D fusion reactions.
- ch4s3 5y agoIs it real or could there be unaccounted for neutron sources? That’s been an issue with past metal lattice setups.
- DennisP 5y agoNo idea, but it'd be odd if neutrons from another source just happened to have the energy of D-D neutrons.
- ch4s3 5y agoIf you're producing gamma rays, then you have a neutron source. This is exactly how the cold fusion people mislead themselves into thinking they had succeeded.
- danbruc 5y agoFusing hydrogen is easy, ionize it and accelerate the plasma with a voltage of on the order of 10 to 100 kV, hobbyists do this somewhat regularly. Doesn't sound too surprising that hitting hydrogen with gamma rays produces some fusion. But that's the crucial point, some fusion is not useful as an energy source, and not all fusion methods can be scaled up.
- DennisP 5y agoSure, I'm not denying that at all. It looks like real fusion happening, but might not be no more useful than fusors. They mentioned their current methods are too lossy, but they did have some interesting arguments for it being a practical energy source someday.
- ncmncm 5y agoIf they can use it to produce He3, that would be a valuable contribution independently of any energy production goal.
- fooker 5y agoI misread lattice as lettuce and was a bit confused for a while about the purpose of hitting lettuce with gamma rays!
- fernly 5y agoIndeed, came to say the same. Toward the end of the IEEE article it has this: > We’ve also triggered nuclear reactions by pumping deuterium gas through a thin wall of a palladium-silver alloy tubing, and by electrolytically loading palladium with deuterium. In the latter experiment, we’ve detected fast neutrons. "electrolytically loading palladium with deuterium" is very, very similar to the Pons/Fleischman setup, which was basically electrolysis with palladium electrodes.