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    "ocrText": "selves-in a few more months, perhaps.\nfunding from the hot fusion program. With private zeal, and\nThe revolution began inauspiciously, with Drs. Martin\nlater public scorn, scientists supported by the hot fusion pro-\nFleischmann and Stanley Pons working for five years and\ngram-particularly at MIT, my alma mater-sought errors in\nspending some $100,000 of their own funds before they\nthe Fleischmann-Pons work.\nannounced their findings. Circumstances forced disclosure at a\nWhen the exact radiation signatures and end-products of hot\npress conference some eighteen months before the scientists\nfusion reactions in a vacuum were not found in the\nhad wanted to publish. These complex matters, of historical\nFleischmann-Pons results or in quickly-done tests at other labo-\nimportance only, are chronicled in Fire from Ice: Searching for the\nratories, scientists at the MIT Plasma Fusion Center yelled pos-\nTruth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor (Mallove, John Wiley & Sons,\nsible fraud,\" \"scam,\" and \"scientific schlock.\" On May 1, 1989,\n1991). The scientific documentary video, Cold Fusion: Fire from\nthe story planted in the Boston Herald by the then MIT hot fusion\nWater (1999) updates that story and provides insight into the\ndirector unleashed a torrent of anti-scientific bigotry. It did not\npolitical dynamics of the controversy. (The White House was\noccur to most scientists that a new class of nuclear reactions\nsent these items in February 2000 and earlier.)\nmight have been discovered. As Nobel laureate Julian\nOn that fateful day in 1989, Fleischmann and Pons made their\nSchwinger would say in a lecture at MIT in November 1991,\ncentral claim, which has been abundantly proved and never\n\"The circumstances of cold fusion are not those of hot fusion.\"\nretracted, that in a heavy water electrochemical cell near room\nHe was ignored.\ntemperature they had produced excess energy orders of magni-\nThe furor over cold fusion in the spring of 1989 prompted\ntude beyond explanation by chemistry. This was like discovering a\nPresident George Bush, through Energy Secretary Admiral\nnew kind of match that would not \"burn out\" for weeks or\nJames Watkins, to convene a \"Cold Fusion Panel\" of the U.S.\nmonths, yet would leave no initially obvious signs of a reaction\nDepartment of Energy's Energy Research Advisory Board\nproduct. Certainly there was no chemical ash. They said that\n(ERAB). The late Nobel laureate Glenn Seaborg had told\nthey had detected neutrons and tritium in addition to the excess\nPresident Bush in the Oval Office on April 14, 1989 that the Utah\nheat. These were all signatures of nuclear reactions.\ndiscovery was \"not fusion,\" thus poisoning the well and pre-\nUnfortunately, they did not emphasize the difficulty of pro-\ncluding an honest investigation. One of the 22 ERAB panelists\nducing the effects. At the time, because their hands were tied\nhad thought at the time: \"Just by looking at Fleischmann and\nby lawyers focussed on patent issues and conflicts with nearby\nPons on television you could tell they were incompetent\nBrigham Young University, they were not even able to provide\nboobs.\" (Professor William Happer of Princeton, quoted by G.\nat their news conference a preprint of their forthcoming Journal\nTaubes in the book Bad Science.) So much for the claim that the\nof Electroanalytical Chemistry paper. Their neutron measure-\nERAB panel was \"unbiased.\" The head of the panel, Professor\nments were flawed, as they later admitted. This was a failing,\nJohn Huizenga, was initially opposed to having any investiga-\nyet others would later confirm in cold fusion experiments both\ntion at all, yet he was allowed to lead it!\nlow-level neutron radiation as well as tritium evolution. The\nThis panel, convened by the Department of Energy, was\ntter astonishing evidence has been irrefutably proved by the\nassigned to assess reports from various laboratories and to\nvork of Dr. Thomas Claytor's group at Los Alamos National\nmake recommendations to the U.S. government. Three major\nLaboratory.¹ For national security reasons alone, the President\nlaboratories submitted negative reports. These were MIT,\nof the United States should cause heads to roll about this mat-\nCaltech, and Harwell (England). The ERAB report was nega-\nter! This is at least as important as the security breach of com-\ntive, and quickly so. A preliminary negative conclusion came in\nputer files at LANL. Radioactive tritium, the irrefutable evi-\nJuly 1989 and the final report November 1, 1989, with the fol-\ndence of a nuclear reaction- proof of the reality of cold fusion,\nlowing consequences: 1) No special funding by the U.S. gov-\nand a key material ingredient in thermonuclear weapons-can\nernment for further research; 2) Flat denial by the U.S. Patent\nnow be produced in small quantities by means far easier than\nOffice of any application mentioning cold fusion directly; 3)\nwith several multi-billion-dollar proposals. However, this work\nSuppression of research on the phenomenon in government lab-\ncannot and should not be classified. It is already in the public\noratories; 4) Citation of cold fusion as \"pathological science\" or\ndomain. (Significant improvement of the process to practical tri-\n\"fraud\" in numerous books and articles critical of cold fusion in\ntium-production level might well need to be classified.)\ngeneral, and of Fleischmann and Pons in particular. Drs.\nMost important to an understanding of the heated debate of\nFleischmann and Pons would leave the United States to work\nthe past decade: The Fleischmann-Pons announcement threat-\non cold fusion in France for a subsidiary of the Toyota\nened an entrenched Federal research program. Over $15 billion\nCorporation (IMRA Europe). Stanley Pons became a citizen of\nhad been invested by the U.S. government in its decades- long\nFrance, in legitimate disgust with his treatment in the United\nhot fusion program, which sought to emulate the thermonuclear\nStates. Mr. President, you simply must have the courage to\nconditions in the cores of stars. Hot fusion had promised a dis-\nredress this outrage and have our government apologize to\ntant era of safe, clean, infinite energy-variously estimated by\nthese extraordinary scientists. The probably illegal killing of\nfunding seekers to begin by 2050 to 2100. These programs may\ntheir patent application must be redressed too.\nhave resulted in useful plasma physics research, but no net\nThe 1989 reports of MIT, Caltech, and Harwell have each been\nenergy release in fusion energy beyond the magnitude of the\nanalyzed by competent scientists and these analyses have been\nelectric power put in-ever. Thermonuclear bombs were at\npublished. 11-16 Each of the widely cited 1989 \"null\" experiments\n\"breakeven,\" but controlled thermonuclear fusion reactors at\nhas been found to be deeply flawed in experimental protocols,\nPrinceton and at MIT are not. The magnetic hot fusion energy\ndata evaluation, and presentation. Each, in fact, contained some\nprogram should be terminated quickly to prevent any more\nevidence of excess heat as claimed by Fleischmann and Pons. In\naste of research funding.\nthe case of the MIT data, there is evidence of deliberate alter-\nFleischmann and Pons said in 1989 that they had achieved\nation of laboratory measurements by a lower-echelon worker to\nbreakeven already and, unlike hot fusion, there were no deadly\nerase an indication of excess heat in official MIT publications\nemissions. The claim of a chemically-assisted nuclear fusion reac-\nand reports to a government agency under the official seal of\ntion with net energy release threatened to divert Congressional\nMIT. Certainly this report had a dramatic impact on the percep-\n4"
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