[Vo]:Wigner effect?

[Andy Findlay]

Does anybody know of a sensible counter-argument (or maybe even a peer reviewed refutation) to the idea that the anomalous heat of cold-fusion/LENR might just be due to a Wigner-(like)-Effect? I had never heard of the Wigner Effect until a couple of days ago when I was reading about the Windscale fire (sorry about the use of Wikipedia links). It got me thinking about whether the documented swelling of palladium during loading could lead to a similar Wigner (like) Effect deformation of the palladium lattice which could then release stored energy abruptly - as happened in the graphite moderators in the Windscale fire. Following up on this, I found Douglas R.O. Morrison's Cold Fusion News article on NET which includes the following paragraph: "Prof. Bockris of Texas A&M give a talk entitled "Seven Chemical Explanations of the Fleischmann-Pons effect" where he estimated the heat excess produced but always got values much less than the early claims of F-P and of Huggins of the order of 10 Watts - the highest he calculated was 0.9 W for the Pauling suggestion of PdH2 formation. He was asked about the Wigner effect, but had not considered it [ comment - this is a favourite explanation of many people. It was responsible for a large release of radioactivity in about 1957 at Windscale - the neutrons absorbed by the graphite had stored a lot of energy in the graphite by changing its structure and the subsequent release of this energy caused the trouble. It had previously been predicted by Wigner. Similarly the absorption of hydrogen or of deuterium by palladium causes the palladium to swell and this stores a lot of energy in the cathode. When the loading stops (e.g. the current is switched off or the level of the electrolyte falls and exposes part of the cathode), then this Wigner energy can be released]." Obviously I missed out on part of the cold fusion story. So, counter-arguments? Andy.