This inclusion in the funding bill is actually rather amazing IMO - at least the positive sentiment which is expressed juxtaposed to the prevailing negative sentiment of the past.
Maybe "nothing will come of it" but I wouldn't be so skeptical. Many observers have been looking for that "killer app" so to speak - the tipping point for immediate commercialization, which pushes things over the top. It may come in the form of a "crossover" implementation where LENR is combined with hot fusion. For example - the making of deuterium targets for inertial confinement fusion using LENR techniques and the emerging dense hydrogen technology. Miley and other respected experts have been pushing for this kind of implementation - for some dozen or more years. It could allow for a factor of several orders of magnitude reduction in laser energy needed and be far cleaner (almost neutron-free). Not exactly cold fusion but halfway there. See the Cambridge report (11 years old) and the follow-on material. It makes so much more sense than ITER and the other plasma boondoggles. Jones https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/laser-and-particle-beams/article/threshold-for-laser-driven-block-ignition-for-fusion-energy-from-hydrogen-boron-11/CAAB5E68307C3821494D196518BA72C4 Jed Rothwell wrote: Final FY20 Appropriations: National Science Foundation Low-energy nuclear reactions. The House report encourages NSF to “evaluate the various theories, experiments, and scientific literature surrounding the field of LENR,” which is most associated with the pursuit of cold fusion. It also directs NSF to “provide a set of recommendations as to whether future federal investment into LENR research would be prudent, and if so, a plan for how that investment would be best utilized.” https://www.aip.org/fyi/2020/final-fy20-appropriations-national-science-foundation Nothing will come of this.
