Doubts about nuclear fusion claim

Press, 30 March 1989, Page 8

Doubts about nuclear fusion claim

NZPA-Reuter The Hague A Dutch expert expressed scepticism has about hopes of a new era of cheap nuclear energy as a result of recent experiments carried out by scientists in the United States. Martin Fleischmann, of Southampton University, in Britain, and B. Stanley Pons, head of the University of Utah’s chemistry department, stunned scientists last week with their claims to have found the key to producing low-cost energy from fusion. Until now, nuclear fusion has been achieved only at a temperature close to that of the sun, making it impractical as an everyday source of energy.

The plasma physics laboratory at the Dutch Foundation for the Fundamental -Research of Matter in Nieuwegein failed to duplicate the results in repetitions of the experiment this week.

Tony Donne, scientific group leader of diagnostics at the laboratory, said Professor Fleischmann 'and Professor Pons might have advanced the understanding of fusion but he doubted whether their find would soon usher in a new era of limitless, cheap energy. “They must have seen

a fusion reaction but I’m not sure it’s the final solution to commercial fusion reactions,” Mr Donne said. Professor Fleischmann and Professor Pons have not yet published technical details of their experiment Scientists in the United States and at Britain’s Atomic Energy Authority’s Harwell laboratory near Oxford have also been trying to duplicate the experiment.

Professor Fleischmann said in London that he was not surprised by scepticism about his nuclear-fusion theory. He told reporters, “This is something so extraordinary that I think they are entirely justified in being sceptical.”

“Professor Pons and I have done a number of difficult experiments together which people found hard to believe and so, far we have always turned out to be correct — but there is always a first time. If that happens, I will have a lot of egg on my face, but sometimes one has to take a chance.”

A repeat experiment at Harwell will take place over the next three months. The neutron detector will show whether neutron particles are released — a sign fusion has taken place.