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s 6 h Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF6) was held at Lake Toya, Hokkaido, Japan, on October 13th – 18th 1996, with 179 participants registering from 17 countries. 43 oral presentation papers and 77 poster presentation papers were selected out of more than 160 abstracts originally submitted. The Proceedings, gPROGRESS IN NEW HYDROTEN ENERGYh, has been edited as the document of the Conference.
The Local Organizing Committee carried out a series of intensive discussions on the scope of the conference, and decided that it should provide an international forum for discussion of the most recent and academic aspects of the research.
Following the scope, the Technical Program Committee spent many hours reviewing and selecting the papers that were to be presented in the Oral and Poster Sessions. l young researchers performing highly scientific activities were selected, based on their submitted abstracts and the recommendations by related senior scientists, and approximately 30% of the submitted abstracts were rejected. Severe discussions were also made in selecting the presenters that were to be supported financially by the Basic Research Program of the NHE Project, and more than 20 researchers received financial support to attend the Conference. The Local Organizing Committee also planned a technical tour which was a new attempt in the history of ICCF. The tour to the NHE Sapporo Laboratory was realized on October 18th by the generous assistance of Dr. N. Asami (Vice-Chairperson) and his staff.
The topics for papers were arranged into 5 fields: (1) Excess Energy Phenomena in Deuterium/Metal Systems, (2) Correlation Between Excess Energy and Nuclear Products, (3) Nuclear Physics Approaches, (4) Material Science Studies, and (5) Innovative Approaches. All topics covered both experimental studies and theoretical studies. The topics also formed a new base in realizing the scientific and academic conference in the so-called cold fusion research field.
The Conference was formed by two sessions: the Fundamental Session and the Special Session, and both sessions consisted of several sub-sessions. The Fundamental Session had 7 sub-sessions; 1: Helium and Heat Correlation (5), 2: NHE (5), 3: Excess Heat (7), 4: Material Science Studies (5), 5: Nuclear Physics Approach (5), 6: Innovative Approach (2), and 7: Excess Heat and Nuclear Products (5). The Special Session had 4 sub-sessions; 1: Russian Activities (1), 2: Indian Activities (1), 3: CETI (Patterson Cell) (2), and 4: Nuclear Transmutation (5). The numbers in parenthesis represent the numbers of oral presentations in each sub-session.
77 abstracts were accepted fro poster presentation in the two sessions. The two-minute Poster Preview were successfully carried out before the poster sessions. All poster presentations were displayed on the poster boards for one day to provide adequate time for intensive discussions.
The Proceedings consist of two parts: the first part for the Fundamental Session and the second part for the Special Session. The volume for each paper was determined in accordance with the academic journal in the science field. Rather than attempting to personally introduce the papers myself, I believe it would be best for each one of you to evaluate and find the significance of each papers yourself. As seen in the Proceedings, recent advances in this extremely wide and intensive research field, from nuclear physics to material science, has made various scientific discussions possible in this attractive but long neglected field of study.
Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to all ladies and gentlemen who strongly collaborated in realizing this wonderful scientific conference, especially to the participants, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, The Institute of Applied Energy, New Hydrogen Energy Laboratory, Technical Program Committee and Convention Linkage, Inc.
Chairperson, Prof. Makoto Okamoto,
Local Organizing Committee,
The Sixth International Conference on Cold Fusion