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The Suppression of Fuel Savers and Alternate Energy Resources 461
Fusion Hot and Cold
Fusion is the opposite of fission, although both processes start
with atoms. Atoms are the tiny building blocks that make up all
matter. An atom consists of a nucleus, which is made up of protons
and neutrons, and electrons, which form a cloud around the
nucleus. Different atoms contain different amounts of protons,
neutrons, and electrons, and form different types of matter.
Fission is the splitting of an atom's nucleus, such as by bombarding
it with neutrons. This releases a great amount of energy.
An atomic bomb and a nuclear power plant both use fission.
Fusion is the joining together of atomic nuclei. Hot fusion,
which is said by some scientists to be what energizes our sun,
uses a form of the lightest element, hydrogen.
Textbooks teach that temperatures reaching millions of
degrees Fahrenheit are needed before the positively charged
hydrogen nuclei can overcome their natural repulsion toward
each other, since like charges repel—think of what happens if
you attempt to bring the north poles of two magnets together. If
the hydrogen nuclei do come close enough together, they form
something different—helium nuclei. In the process, tremendous
amounts of energy are released.
Instead of using super-heated gas, cold fusion seems to be
based on the reaction of a metal such as palladium, which has
large spaces between its nuclei, and a liquid form of hydrogen
called deuterium. The deuterium seems to move into the
spaces within the palladium in the same way that water moves
into the open, absorbent surface of a towel. While no one disputes
the fact that the metal absorbs the deuterium, cold-fusion
proponents cannot prove that the reaction which follows the
absorption is a nuclear reaction.
Cold fusion is not without problems. For example, one of the
byproducts of cold fusion is the radioactive gas tritium, a rare
form of hydrogen. As one new-energy organization has noted,
cold fusion introduces concerns about radioactivity, and even a
low level of radiation can eventually lead to environmental and
health problems.
From The Coming Energy Revolution by Jeane Manning (Garden City Park, NY:
Avery Publishing Group, 1996).