Preface

Thomas O. Passell, Electric Power Research Institute

This compendium of papers is a refereed subset of the total submitted at this conference held December 6-7, 1993, at Lahina, Maui. A more complete set has been published by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), one of the conference organizers, as EPRI Report TR-104088, Volume 1 thorough 4, available through the EPRI Report Distribution Center. Significant contributions to the conference were received from researchers working in Japan, Italy, China, India, Russia, France, Spain, and the United States. Some 242 attendees participated with general respect for the opinions and results of each other on this controversial subject. New evidence of interesting phenomena was presented on ultrasonic cavitation-induced heat effects in palladium exposed to heavy water, heat effects from ceramic proton conductors exposed to deuterium gas, and tritium production in palladium electrodes across which discharges in low-pressure deuterium gas were induced by modest voltages.

Not all of the interesting papers were either submitted for peer review or passé it, which may say as much about the value of peer review on a radically new topic as about the quality of the research. Clearly, the topic has attracted some apparently nonscientific papers well outside the usual limits of acceptability. The most distressing aspect is the apparent attempt by a few vocal critics to suppress honest investigation of the subject by lobbying against allowing research funds to be applied to it. Fortunately, this effort has not succeeded in stopping the research, but it has certainly slowed progress. The quotation from Shakespeare is apt here, “Methinks she doth protest too much.”

The connection between excess heat and nuclear reactions is still elusive because of the demanding nature of combined experiments, but evidence is increasing for the appearance of ⁴He in the vapor phase of electrochemical cells that have exhibited apparent excess heat. It will be interesting to see if this early evidence is confirmed in the future.

Thanks are due two cosponsoring organizations, the U.S. Office of Naval Research and the ENEA. Also, the Japanese organization New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) is gto be congratulated for succeeding in establishing its “New Hydrogen Energy” project, a fact announced by Mr. Matsui on the first day of the conference. Thanks are also due Dr. Miley for leaving open a publication door when many of the usual journals decided to reject all papers on the subject. Finally, I was touched by the efforts of Julian Schwinger to contribute t the theoretical underpinnings of this research, even in his last days of life. It is fitting that these conference proceedings be dedicated to his memory.