Update : Another independent verification “E-Cat over 32 days, where it produced net energy of 1.5 megawatt-hours”
Update : Cold fusion test going well. But Rossi’s technology is locked up in the US.
“the 400-day, 24/7, acceptance test of the one megawatt reactor is going well after several months”
Update : An attempt to replicate the e-cat ended explosively.Watch the point it explodes here. Not clear if this is due to the fusion reaction..more about this group
Update: Cold fusion is real, claim scientists
“It is just a matter four or five years for energy sources based on cold fusion to be commercially available.”
Update: Skunk Works, a research lab of Lockheed Martin, is working on a small fusion reactor that would fit in the back of a truck. However, the approach is not really new so it experts are not sure why it is persued.
Update : Bill Gates is looking into Palladium based fusion technology, also from Italy. The term for this type of fusion is Low Energy Nuclear Reactor. The key remains that the energy per mass of fuel is huge.
A couple of years ago an italian researcher Rossi claimed to have build a nickel/hydrogen fusion reactor. He demonstrated it in his lab and was working on building an actual powerplant in Greece. Then things died down. His claims where refuted mainly because there was no (accepted) explanation for them. His reactor seemed to produce more heat than it should, but nobody could explain why.
The reactor gets hotter than it should..
Now a number of researchers have tested his E-cat reactor for 32 days, analized the Nickel fuel and conclude that it works. “The researchers, analyzing the fuel before and after the 32-day burn, note that there is an isotope shift from a “natural” mix of Nickel-58/Nickel-60 to almost entirely Nickel-62 — a reaction that, the researchers say, cannot occur without nuclear reactions (i.e. fusion).” (source)
The reactor emits no radiation and produces no radioactive waste (except Nickel-62, a very stable isotope). It can be used to generate heat and electricity witout emitting CO2, NOx or other pollutants (of course the Nickel has to be mined and processed). It is interesting to learn how clean the energy is when all steps necessary for it are considered.
More info at e-cat World
Update : Rossi believes the energy is due to a shift in isotope composition, So not fusion as in adding protons .