SCIENCE / MEDICINE : Evidence of Cold Fusion Found to Be Inaccurate

More cold water was thrown on the concept of cold fusion last week when researchers disclosed that the presence of a compound, which was generally considered the best proof that fusion had occurred, actually arose from contaminated experimental apparatus.

Cold fusion purportedly was discovered last year by electrochemists B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann of the University of Utah, who claimed that they obtained excess energy from a simple desktop apparatus in which palladium and platinum electrodes are immersed in “heavy water.” When an electric current was passed through the device, it produced more energy than it consumed, presumably through the fusion of hydrogen atoms to produce heavier elements.

Several research groups, especially at Texas A&M; University, reported that they had found tritium, which would have been produced by fusion, in the reaction cells.

But chemist Kevin Wolf of Texas A&M; revealed that the palladium electrodes used in the experiments were contaminated with tritium before the experiments began, invalidating their results. Palladium from the same source was also used in other laboratories.