Not many politicians, or vorticians for that matter - realize that there is a secondary potential danger involved in cold fusion technology. This is a "derived threat" which can be more costly than deadly, since it could result in another needless war.
It can be called a predictable effect of ignorance (and high level neglect) - in almost the same way as the events leading up to 9/11 were foreseeable, and should have led to proactive measures that would have mitigated the tragedy. except for the reality of "official neglect" (in both political parties at the highest level). Are we doomed to repeat? The readers of this forum have been exposed to the (remote) possibility of the weaponization of the LENR technology, but that is not the only threat - or even the major threat since it probably does not exist in reality; but the problem is that we do not know that, for sure. Ignorance is not bliss. Of course, the nightmare is that a low-tech CF weapon is remotely feasible, and if such were to fall into the wrong hands then all bets about the future of Western Civilization are off . but that is only the tip of the iceberg. If stable Rydberg matter, pycnodeuterium, deuterinos (or any of the other names which have been used), exists at all - then someone, somewhere will investigate the military advantages. Almost assuredly this has happened, or is happening. But an energetic chain-reaction type of bomb is not necessary, and there is every reason to believe that something like a "dirtier" kind of dirty-bomb is imminently possible. And there is a near certainty that the risk of a dirtier-dirty-bomb can lead us into another war, especially if it is perceived to be in the hands of an (Islamic) enemy like Iran. As I will argue below, this is a ploy that is probably in the planning stages, as we speak. But not in the way you may be thinking. In recent history, say between 1990-2000, it may have sounded logical to the upper echelon in DoE/DoD that a policy of "official neglect" might serve to eliminate any breakthrough - and that the effort to perfect LENR would go away on its own, but that did not happen. For good or for bad. In 2010, the predicament is now one of a substantial risk of official neglect - since only an absolute fool in the Pentagon can write-off the reality of LENR, given their own SPAWAR results. Not to mention that Pycnodeuterium could be the huge breakthrough, yet few of us appreciate that fact now, since it has not made its way into a useful device . But the bottom line is that even if new type of chain-reaction bomb is NOT possible, the threat of it alone could cost billions. That would materialize in the exactly the same way as Cheney's false charade against Iraq - and the invention of WMDs - which big-lie has now cost us two trillion in the mid-East, with no end in sight. The threat does not need to be "real" to be costly - and our ignorance of the possibilities end up could costing far more than what has been spent. If you cannot see the close parallel to the WMD situation, then this post has been a waste of effort and bandwidth. All that Iran needs to do, to pull us into another costly and useless war is to announce to the World that they have mastered the cold fusion bomb. This could be a type of hypothetical device that only required fuel grade reactor fuel along with pycnodeuterium, who knows? Iran's leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a certified nut-case who might make such a claim - true or not. The materials for pycno are readily available and the Arata papers are all over the internet. Any terrorist nation, or even large radical group could pull-off a "Cold Fusion Bomb hoax" and the threat must be treated as credible since we presently have no way of discrediting it . ALL due to the sad fact that we do not grasp the technology ourselves (at least not officially). But the biggest risk of all is that our only ally in the region - Israel which does have an advanced LENR program, and may be ahead of us in secret (Mossad), and may understand the military implications much better than the Pentagon does (no doubt) - will try to exploit that position by "framing" Iran - to make it look like they have succeeded. In fact, if they do not do this - then they are not living up to their past reputation. They could easily pull it off by planting and exploding their own version of the dirty bomb in Iran, and done in such a way that it appeared to be a home grown accident - having already planted the seeds of deception in other ways. This would draw us into the resulting conflict of course, just as surely as the WMD did . And worst of all, this may sound like nothing more than a spy-vs-spy international thriller, but is it fiction? . is the WMD fiasco the "teachable moment" which fell on deaf ears? Jones
