An interesting look at everybody's favorite non-starter. From Popular Science:
At Annual Convention, Chemists Warm to Cold Fusion
Looking for new energy solutions, scientists are increasingly embracing the idea of cold fusion, once considered a junk science along the lines of alchemy. "Cold fusion" describes the nuclear fusion of atoms at close to room temperatures, as opposed to the epic temperatures at which nuclei fuse inside stars. If realized on a practical scale, it could provide the world with a virtually limitless source of energy.
Several new frontiers in cold fusion research are on display this week at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in San Francisco. One researcher is working on a new kind of battery that uses a new cold fusion process and has a longer shelf life than conventional batteries. Another researcher has experimental evidence that some forms of bacteria use a type of cold fusion, and their biologically driven transmutations could help dispose of nuclear waste.
German chemist Jan Marwan, who organized the Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions symposium at the ACS meeting, said scientists are no longer afraid to talk about cold fusion.
"I've also noticed that the field is gaining new researchers from universities that had previously not pursued cold fusion research. More and more people are becoming interested in it," he said in a statement. "There's still some resistance to this field. But we just have to keep on as we have done so far, exploring cold fusion step by step, and that will make it a successful alternative energy source."
There are some anomalies out there but there are also a lot of bogus claims backed up with stunningly bad labwork. One of the more interesting proponents of hot fusion is EMC2 Fusion: They offer the following timeline and have been receiving funding from the US Navy:
EMC2 Fusion Development Corporation has been formed as a charitable research and development organization in frontier energy technologies with emphasis on fusion.
Fusion R&D Phase 1 - Validate and extend WB-6 results with WB-7 Device:
1.5 years / $1.8M, Successfully Completed
Fusion R&D Phase 2 - Design, build and test larger scale WB-8 Polywell Device:
2 years / $7M, In Process
Fusion R&D Phase 3 - Design, build and test full scale 100 MW Fusion System:
4 years / $200M, In Design Phase
Successful Phase 3 marks the end of fossil fuels
They are using an outgrowth of the Farnsworth Fusor technology invented back in the 1960's. If their whiffle-ball technology successfully scales up, things should get very interesting, very fast...
