From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Tue Mar 05 2002 - 17:01:16 MST
On Tue, 5 Mar 2002, Amara Graps wrote:
> jeff davis:
> > It was clear to the respectable scientific community
> > that cold fusion was not possible. The laws of
> > physics made that quite clear.
>
> Not sure this statement is true, Jeff.
>
Jeff, I'd tend to agree with Amara. It isn't that "cold fusion"
is "impossible". Its a question as to whether there are "cold"
methods of focusing the acceleration of molecules, atoms or
ions that can overcome the repulsion of the electrons
(in molecules/atoms) or protons (in ions). If there are
methods of accelerating/directing the entities involved
such that they overcome their repulsive tendencies, then
"fusion" is possible. The next question becomes whether
the energy expended to accelerate/direct such entitites
is less than that which can be harvested from a fusion
reaction.
Note that there are two places to improve the efficiency:
a) decreased energy requirements to drive the entities towards fusion.
b) increased efficiency in harvesting the energy generated by fusion.
I don't know of a "proof" that we have reached the limits
on either of these vectors.
Of course the CW is that a room temperature reactor cannot
generate the energies to overcome the repulsions one expects.
However there may always be novel phenomena in which one has
to ask whether or not conditions that might overcome the repulsions
may be generated.
Robert
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