Cold fusion

On March 23, 1989, the University of Utah, USA, announced the results of an experiment conducted by two Electrochemistry Professors, Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons. In a table-top electrochemical cell they achieved nuclear fusion reactions between D nuclei at very low levels of energy, and the generation of unexplainable excess thermal energy with no potentially-dangerous radiation emission, which was quite unexpected. Actually its level was enormously higher than that usually ascribed to exothermic phenomena – both chemical and physical – predictable in that kind of experiment.

Such experiment was repeated with alternate success in many laboratories in all countries all over the world. Failures and lack of reproducibility in various experiments generated a widespread scepticism about this phenomenon, that quickly replaced the excessive interest immediately showed by the scientific community.

Twenty years after that very first experiment, however, research on Cold Fusion has taken remarkable steps forward – both experimental and theoretical – so that this empiric science has regained its credibility. Today it is known as LENR (Low Energy Nuclear Reactions), a sector of nuclear condensed matter physics.

The present volume describes the history of research in Italy from 1989 until today.

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