The question “is cold fusion real?” has been
around since 1989 when Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, two of the
world’s leading electrochemists, rather prematurely announced that they
had achieved this phenomena in a test tube in their lab.
Cold fusion, otherwise called Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR), is, theoretically, the fusing together (rather than a chemical reaction) of elements at “normal” temperatures such that they release more energy than is required to fuse them.
This is an idea that is incredibly appealing because if it could be achieved it would provide mankind with, again in theory, incredibly cheap energy. In practice, there could be drawbacks such as pollution and radiation but until cold fusion is actually demonstrated and developed, no one knows.
Hot fusion, on the other hand, is the process by which elements would be fused together at temperatures and pressures only found naturally in stars.
While hot fusion, yet again theoretically, would create more energy than it would to induce fusion the conditions required are so extreme that rather than a simple test tube it requires machines the size of houses and enormous supporting facilities that bring the whole project up to factory scale (see the National Ignition Facility). Hot fusion is also guaranteed to have radioactive waste products.
Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/markgibbs/2012/10/20/cold-fusion-gets-a-little-more-real/?utm_campaign=techtwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
Cold fusion, otherwise called Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR), is, theoretically, the fusing together (rather than a chemical reaction) of elements at “normal” temperatures such that they release more energy than is required to fuse them.
This is an idea that is incredibly appealing because if it could be achieved it would provide mankind with, again in theory, incredibly cheap energy. In practice, there could be drawbacks such as pollution and radiation but until cold fusion is actually demonstrated and developed, no one knows.
Hot fusion, on the other hand, is the process by which elements would be fused together at temperatures and pressures only found naturally in stars.
While hot fusion, yet again theoretically, would create more energy than it would to induce fusion the conditions required are so extreme that rather than a simple test tube it requires machines the size of houses and enormous supporting facilities that bring the whole project up to factory scale (see the National Ignition Facility). Hot fusion is also guaranteed to have radioactive waste products.
Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/markgibbs/2012/10/20/cold-fusion-gets-a-little-more-real/?utm_campaign=techtwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
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