Cold fusion gets warm reception in Japan

BRIEFINGS

Remember cold fusion? The "miracle" formula discovered at the University of Utah that turned out to be no miracle at all? But if you thought cold fusion went the way of spontaneous generation and alchemy, rest assured a dwindling but undaunted coterie of scientists is keeping the dream alive. Last October at Japan's Yokohama National University, a few dozen members of the Japan CF-Research Society convened to compare notes on, for instance, "neutral pion- catalysed fusion" and "nuclear transmutation by light water electrolysis with a palladium cathode." The CF society, bearing a name that stands for condensed-matter fusion and coherently-induced fusion as well as cold fusion, was founded in March 1999 to reignite interest in a field rapidly losing luster in the wake of waning interest and funding by the national government. Today's investment in Japan for cold fusion experiments, says Eiichi Yamaguchi, a founder and director of the society, "is negligible," with research concentrated largely in Hokkaido, Osaka, and Iwate universities, where general budgets are tweaked to scare up spare change for continued experiments, according to Yamaguchi.

The "discovery" of cold fusion, with its promise of infinite, cheap energy by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischman in 1989 must have tantalized the Japanese like no one else. Bereft of natural resources, Japan is totally reliant on imports for fossil fuel supplies, an unpleasant fact that is drummed into every schoolchild and has been a constant source of anxiety. The oil shocks of the '70s still loom large in the national subconscious, and Japan's resulting headlong rush into nuclear power has left it vulnerable to some scary mishaps, most recently the deadly release of radiation in the rural town of Tokaimura, in September 1999, which killed several workers and sickened dozens more.

"If I could get some space to do research," mourns physicist Yamaguchi, "I have confidence of success." That isn't likely to happen soon, but never mind. Japan's devoted core of cold fusion believers is pressing on, preparing for the next international conference set for May in Beijing.

Copyright American Society for Engineering Education Mar 2002
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