In communicating about new energy, I often use the moniker cold fusion. Its direct relation to the fusion process, and the implication of coldness, may only loosely describe the energy effect that Professors' Pons and Fleischmann saw 21 years ago, and symbolic poetry the koan "cold fusion" may be. But the fact is, the use of the term cold fusion does, at least initially, avoid the word "nuclear".
Upon hearing the word nuclear to describe this powerful energy producing effect, many listeners are instantly wary, knowing what that word can mean. But there are several different types of energy-producing nuclear effects, many of which have the possibility of use as an energy source. If you are new to the new energy movement, or trying to make informed decisions about your energy use, knowing the distinction between different types of nuclear-generated power is crucial.
The reason nuclear power is important is because there is no amount of renewable energy that will provide all the energy we need. Put solar panels over all the land in the US. Put wind turbines up and down the coasts. The power generated won't match the energy we're getting from oil, gas, and coal. If humanity wants a peaceful existence on a healthy planet, we will have to use nuclear power to do it.
But don't fear the word! The nuclear power that created Three Mile Island and Chernobyl is not the only kind of nuclear power! Even hot fusion does not appear to complete the nuclear energy-producing classification. 21 years ago a different kind of nuclear energy-generating effect was announced, one that is capable of providing a safe, clean, and green nuclear-sized power using a fuel derived from seawater.
Traditional scientific theories have postulated two kinds of nuclear power, fission and fusion, each with a theory filled out confidently. So what is the difference?
Fission nuclear energy refers to the energy released when atoms split apart. For instance, bombarding a uranium atom with a neutron will split apart the uranium, releasing energy. A lot of energy.
Nuclear fission is a powerful energy source, way more powerful than the chemical burning of hydrocarbons such as oil and gas. This makes nuclear power very attractive to a world with growing needs. Fission nuclear reactions power the conventional nuclear power plants that exist today.
But fission requires a radioactive fuel, such as uranium, which must be mined, processed, and transported. There is a high risk of contaminating the environment, water, and people, possibly making areas uninhabitable for thousands of years. This makes conventional nuclear power plants very dangerous.
Fission reactions also produce a highly radioactive waste materials for which there is no good solution to dealing with. Since the waste can last for thousands of years, it just about impossible to dispose of securely.
Like oil and gas, fission power relies on a finite source of fuel which must be mined from the geography where it exists, engendering all the geo-political issues that currently plague the extraction of hydrocarbons.
Nuclear power plants as they exist today require a decade plus in planning and permits and a large infrastructure of complex engineering. Weighing the huge carbon input and amount of resources expended against the operational lifetime of the plant and the all the inherent risk make unwise further building of conventional fission nuclear reactors. They are dirty, dangerous, and unprofitable.
But, conventional physics has modeled another kind of nuclear reaction, fusion. A fusion nuclear reaction occurs when two atoms fuse together becoming one, and creating a new atom. For instance, two deuterium atoms could fusion together into a helium atom. (Deuterium is a form of hydrogen found in seawater.)
In a fusion reaction, the mass of the resulting Helium atom is slightly less than the masses of the initial two Deuterium atoms combined. This "missing" mass was actually converted into energy according to Albert Einstein's famous equation E=mc2. A lot of energy. It turns out that fusion is even more powerful than fission.
So why aren't we using it now?
Fusion is hard to produce. Nuclear fusion is what occurs deep inside the interiors of stars like our Sun. As understood by scientists, nuclear fusion is a process that requires extremely high pressures and temperatures. These conditions are so physically extreme, that hot fusion scientists have yet to succeed in sustaining the reaction.
Yet should this research succeed, the power of nuclear fusion could provide all of humanity's energy needs for millions of years. Deuterium fuel is easily harvested from the oceans and other elements for fuel can be created. Plus, there is no carbon dioxide emission from nuclear fusion.
Current conventional fusion reactor designs are centralized and complex engineering structures all requiring enormous amounts of energy to run. After tens hundreds of billions of dollars, attempts to recreate hot fusion in conditions like that in the interior of our sun have met with little success.
But what has been exciting for the new energy movement is the discovery of a third kind of nuclear-effect, a newly discovered process that produces fusion-sized energy, but does not fit the traditional theory, an effect that 21 years ago was then, unkindly, dubbed cold fusion.
Cold fusion was the name given to a newly discovered heat-producing "nuclear" reaction, whose mechanism is still yet unknown. There are many names given to this energy effect: low-energy nuclear reactions, lattice-assisted nuclear reactions, chemically-assisted nuclear reactions, and even solid fusion.
Whatever it may be called, the cold fusion reaction produces nuclear fusion-sized power inside of a thin film of metal bathed in a glass of heavy water at a comfortable room temperature. Attaching a small battery for a little juice can produce megajoules of energy from 0.3 grams of palladium over days, with no radioactive waste and no CO2 emission.
The energy effect comes in the form of heat, but it does not produce the type or quantity of radiation that is seen in hot fusion. Scientists are currently struggling to understand what process is at work theoretically, but the big problem is reproducing the effect on demand. Most of the conditions needed to produce the effect are know, but not all of them. In particular, the palladium (or other material) must be prepared properly in just the right way. Just what will consistently produce the effect is only partially known.
Nevertheless, results from 21 years of experiments are clear: the production of energy from this process has been measured and confirmed. Current energy outputs are 25 times the energy input, with that number recently grown to a possible 400 times output to input energy!
Transitioning this newly discovered science into technology will take time. Increased reliability of energy produced must occur first.
The federal government, the servant of its people, and the ones who take our money for the common good, must fund this research now. After the basic science is developed, private capital will invest to engineer technology that we the people will buy. Inventors will create new ways to utilize a whole new form of energy and change our world. There will be nothing less than a revolution.
At the end of the oil age, there isn't enough oil left to bother drilling in the most deep and dangerous places. Oil is a precious resource, a chemical stock. We shouldn't be burning it in our poorly designed transports. Save it to manufacture medical devices and other comforts of humanity.
End acid rain from destroying Earth's forests. Stop the flood of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. End resource wars and scarcity. Think differently. Move on as a people. Live in peace with your neighbors. Treat the wildlife of our living world as equals to ourselves.
We can turn around right now by paying attention and expanding research on this new form of energy production, a third choice in nuclear power. All efforts should be to support this safe and peaceful power source.
