Above Unity - Cold Fusion

Everybody remember cold fusion? In 1989 Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons reported that they were able to generate heat from an apparatus that they believed was using a palladium catalyst to fuse hydrogen atoms together at room temperature. So their name cold fusion didn't mean it was cold. It was just to contrast it to the type of nuclear fusion that requires millions of degrees such as occurs within stars and Tokamak-style reactors.

However, there were no accredited replications of their experiment and within a few years, the entire process and the experiment was relegated to crackpot science and reputable scientists started distancing themselves from the concept. There was a small band of scientists who quietly continued to research this and renamed the field LENR/CANR for Low Energy Nuclear Reactions and Chemically Assisted Nuclear Reactions so as to create separation from the now pejorative term Cold Fusion.

However, certain events have caused the field to move forward, even forcing the Department of Defense to not deny the phenomenon categorically. As the U.S. was replenishing the tritium supply in its thermonuclear arsenal, they found that the palladium elements were pitted in a manner that was consistent with the finding that cold fusion had occurred. Also, briefly during 2013, one scientist was, in fact, able to reproduce the original Fleischmann-Pons experiment recording frequent periodic bursts of high energy neutrons from the apparatus. Another experiment only recorded a modest amount anomalous heat but showed that the concentration of helium rose in direction proportion to the heat output. There is no known way to "make" helium in a sealed compartment other than fusing together hydrogen molecules. If this were true, then the fusion process was absolutely occurring.

Today many countries including India, Japan and Italy have vibrant, active research programs studying cold fusion. Several of the programs have reported success, especially when they use deuterium which is an isotope of hydrogen. Andrea Rossi's Leonardo Corporation claims his E-cat MW generators should be on the market by the end of 2017.

This is no longer considered fringe science although a working, reproducible setup that generates power has yet to hit the market. There are numerous conferences every year attended by hundreds of scientists and yet we are still way for proof positive. This is not zero point energy. If nuclear fusion is occurring, then it is an above unity device but not magic. The jury is still out.