Nuclear Fusion

The scientific world was stunned in March of 1989 when two electrochemists, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, reported that they had obtained evidence for the occurrence of nuclear fusion at room temperatures. During the electrolysis of heavy water (deuterium oxide), it appeared that the fusion of deuterons was made possible by the presence of palladium electrodes used in the reaction. If such an observation could have been confirmed by other scientists, it would have been truly revolutionary. It would have meant that energy could be obtained from fusion reactions at moderate temperatures.

The Pons-Fleischmann discovery was the subject of immediate and intense scrutiny by other scientists around the world. It soon became apparent, however, that evidence for cold fusion could not consistently be obtained by other researchers. A number of alternative explanations were developed by scientists for the fusion results that Pons and Fleischmann believed they had obtained. Today, some scientists are still convinced that Pons and Fleischmann had made a real and important breakthrough in the area of fusion research. Most researchers, however, attribute the results they reported to other events that occurred during the electrolysis of the heavy water.