In his letter to Physics Today (February 2010, page 10), Jacques Read raises an interesting question by suggesting that the cold-fusion results may be explained by cosmic-ray muons. I have investigated cold fusion for many years and find that the Fleischmann–Pons effect is strongly dependent on the palladium material. Palladium–boron alloys made by the US Naval Research Laboratory have worked especially well in my experiments (see US Patent 6,764,561, 20 July 2004, and US Patent 7,381,368, 3 June 2008). That seems to me to suggest the importance of impurities (boron is an oxygen getter) rather than cosmic-ray muons.
© 2010 American Institute of Physics.
2010
American Institute of Physics
