I assume the Rossi device is producing cold fusion, the same as the Pd-D
systems. Call it what you will, it is what it is. If it produces
radioactive byproducts such as tritium, that fact will soon be known. I
expect many laboratories will soon look closely and learn more about it
than we have learned in the last 22 years. This will happen because at
last they have a system they can turn on at will that produces an easily
measured effect, and because there will an avalanche of research
funding, starting any day now.
If cold fusion is dangerous for any reason, everyone will soon know it.
The decision makers and the public will have to deal with it. This will
be a political decision. The NRC alone will not be given this
responsibility. It is a small, powerless agency, the lapdog of the
nuclear fission industry. Even it opposes cold fusion, the Congress or
the President can sweep it aside in moment. They can even sweep aside
the DoE, which has more funding and influence. They will sweep aside
opposition if the public demands it. If the public takes no action, than
a handful of academic nobodies such as Robert Park will continue to
block development indefinitely.
At present these academic nobodies are acting on their own. I think it
is unlikely that big oil has any knowledge that cold fusion exists. Once
it becomes generally known that it does exist, I predict that one of the
largest political brouhahas of all time will commence. Big oil, big
coal, nuclear power, wind power and other vested interests will wage
all-out political war, saturating members of congress and the mass media
with money. They will hire people such as Park of course. Industry
shills such as Bjorn Lomborg will jump on the bandwagon, making strange
bedfellows with Rifkin and others who oppose new technology on general
principles.
The opposition may win this political battle. Cold fusion may never be
allowed. But we cannot know the outcome. It depends on people's
opinions, feelings, and free will, and these are the most complex and
unpredictable things in the known universe.
I think the most powerful force in favor of cold fusion will be money.
Here is the single most important message we can communicate to the public:
"In the U.S. we pay $2,500 per person per year for fuel. That's taking
into account all of the energy we use as individuals, plus the energy
the government and industry uses on a per-capita basis. With cold fusion
we will pay nothing. Zero. Zip. Cold fusion will save you $2,500 per
year for the rest of your life. If you tell the Congress and the
President to allow cold fusion to forward, it will quickly replace oil
and all sources of fuel. But, if you do nothing, Big Oil will stop this
from happening. So the choice is yours. You can stand by and do nothing,
and keep paying $2,500, or you can have all the energy you want for
nothing. Which will it be?"
- Jed
