Re: OT: nuclear fusion in the palm of your hand
 

Let's see... how long was it before "cold fusion" was found to be due to sloppy research and wishful thinking? Any bets as to when this one meets the same fate?

Re: OT: nuclear fusion in the palm of your hand
 

Well as this seems to be unpractical and inefficient I'd say it probably happened. Cool something down, then heat it up again and then you get a few hundred neutrons a second. Any commercial reactor needs millions, apparently. Probably happened, but also not vitally important in the scheme of things.

Just wait for the Torus research boys to sort something out, if they ever get round to building it of course.

Re: OT: nuclear fusion in the palm of your hand
 

"Cold fusion" claims by Dr. Pons were not able to be reproduced by other scientists who were attempting to validate his theory. They also stretched (some say violated) some known laws of physics. For these reasons the idea was rejected.

This method of fusion is reproducable and relies on well known mechanics. Because of these reasons, I doubt that this method of fusion will have any trouble being accepted as real. Being able to produce usable power safely, cheaply, etc... that has yet to be shown.

Re: OT: nuclear fusion in the palm of your hand
 

Fusion reactors don't meltdown and are unlikely to destroy NYC, or even anything larger than several hundred meters in diameter. First of all, they produce little or no harmful (gamma) radiation, which is produced by fission and which is the sole "component" of a meltdown, and secondly if the magnetic containment fields (I am not making this up) lose cohesion the plasma'll disperse and vanish.