SCIENCE AND WEAPONS REVIEW

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 15603761
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: April 17, 2019
• Case Number: F-2016-01149
• Publication Date: October 20, 1992

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Top Secret
Directorate of Intelligence
Science and Weapons Review
Tuesday
20 October 1992
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026
Top Sacra*
Science and Weapons Review
A Publication of the
Office of Scientific & Weapons Research
Tuesday, 20 October 1992
EUROPE/JAPAN: Cold Fusion Continues To Bubble
Researchers have continued to try to reproduce low-temperature nuclear
fusion in the laboratory and have reported the observation of unusual
phenomena. We believe these phenomena are unlikely to be the basis for a
new energy source; it is possible, however, that an electrochemical
process is involved and that this research could lead to applications in the
area of fuel cells.
(precis continued on next page)
20 October 1992
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10 October 1992 a
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EUROPE/JAPAN
Cold Fusion Continues
To Bubble
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ACCORDING TO THE 5 September 1992 issue of
the European NEW SCIENTIST magazine, Martin
Fleischmann presented a talk on cold fusion to a recent
meeting of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science. Fleischmann, a British chemist, and his
American colleague Stanley Pons announced in 1989
that they had produced nuclear fusion in a test tube of
heavy water at room temperature.
Fleischmann said that he and Pons are now working on
cold fusion at a secret laboratory in France funded
mainly by Technova, a think tank set up by the Japanese
Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).
He showed a video in which the heavy water bubbled
violently and evaporated. This II-minute burst of
activity occurred after a week of steady operation. He
stated that the palladium electrodes used in the
apparatus occupy just 0.04 cubic centimeter, adding
"this is as big as we can make it safely." Based on these
results, Fleischmann calculates that cold-fusion cells
could generate 1 kilowatt of power per cubic centimeter
of fuel, a performance comparable to that of a fast-
breeder reactor
At the same meeting, Frank Close, a British nuclear
physicist and cold-fusion critic, confronted
Fleischmann. Close pointed out that the very large
number of neutrons, alpha particles, or gamma rays
expected to accomplish nuclear fusion have not been
observed. Fleischmann countered by suggesting that a
different form of nuclear fusion was taking place
because the process happened not in the gas phase, as
studied by physicists, but in the solid lattice of the
palladium electrode.
According to a Japanese newspaper, researchers at
Osaka University led by Akito Takahashi have
reproduced cold fusion. The researchers claim that, in
a one-month experiment starting in December 1991,
their apparatus generated an average amount of heat per
cubic centimeter equal to 10 times the amount produced
in a fuel rod of a nuclear reactor. The number of
neutrons they measured decreased as the amount of heat
generated increased.
MITI is funding a survey of recent cold-fusion research.
t is interested in whether the mechanism
involved in cold-fusion experiments deserves to be
studied further for possible applications in fuel cells.
According to the British science magazine NATURE. in
mid-July. 1992 MM's Natural Resources and Energy
Agency confirmed newspaper reports that it is hoping
to start a government-industry project to pursue the
possible application of cold-fusion research in the energy
industry. Tomihiro Taniguchi, director of EPTD at
MITI, stated that electric utility companies and materials
processing industries are interested in the research
Cow/net:
Although the cold-fusion phenomena remain an
enigma, we believe they are not likely to be the basis of
a new power some for mankind. Proponents have not
done the systematic experimentation necessary to
demonstrate the nature of the mechanism involved and
must invoke new physics to explain their results. Ques-
tions remain about how much energy is introduced into
the apparatus over long time periods before significant
activity begins and how this compares to the energy
released. All cold-fusion experiments have been done
20 0,1obrr 1992
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on a laboratory s:ale; questions related to scaling the
annaratus to com mem ial scale have not been addressed.
We judge that the heat-producing process involved in
cold fusion is not a nuclear one. If it is therefore an
electrochemical process, any large yoff from cold-
fusion research in the field of energy sources most
14 October 1992
likely will be in the area of fuel cells. If the MITI
approach is to search for applications to fuel-cell tech-
nology, it would appear lobe a prudent one and the one
most likely to reap benefits in the near term. Potential
applications in materials processing also seem likely.
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