Standing Bear writes:
> That is not as bad as the Popular Science piece of yellow journalism.
> Their latest issue treated cold fusion as 'terrorism'. First they want to
> be implacable hyperskeptics . . .
No, they were not. Popular Science has actually been quite reasonable and informative compared to the rest of the press. In August 1993 they made cold fusion the cover story, in a long and balanced account.
Furthermore, although the August 2004 issue is lurid, especially the cover art, the story is based on opinions expressed by people at the DoE, the DoD, Fleischmann and others who know about the field, especially Mallove. Mallove talked about the terror problem a lot in his last months. I thought his fears were exaggerated, mainly because there are so many other, easier ways for terrorists to blow us up.
A friend of mine who saw the Popular Science cover was upset and thought it was irresponsible. I wrote to him:
"In the distant future cold fusion may become a terrorist threat but for now there is no way it could harm anyone. I have heard that the DOD is concerned that cold fusion may reduce the cost of producing tritium and possibly uranium, which would make it cheaper for a country like Iran to build a bomb, but the job will still be extremely difficult. It is not anything terrorists could do. In any case, terrorists have hundreds of easier ways to attack us. The biggest problem is "loose nukes" -- weapons in the former Soviet Union which are not being guarded properly. . . ."
Regarding the most potent and perhaps easiest way terrorists might blow us up, here are comments from N. Kristof, "The Nuclear Shadow," New York Time, August 14, 2004:
"So what should we be doing? First, it's paramount that we secure uranium and plutonium around the world. That's the idea behind the U.S.-Russian joint program to secure 600 metric tons of Russian nuclear materials. But after 12 years, only 135 tons have been given comprehensive upgrades. Some 340 tons haven't even been touched.
The Nunn-Lugar program to safeguard the material is one of the best schemes we have to protect ourselves, and it's bipartisan, championed above all by Senator Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican. Yet President Bush has, incredibly, at various times even proposed cutting funds for it. He seems bored by this security effort, perhaps because it doesn't involve blowing anything up. . . ."
- Jed
