RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN FUSION ENERGY RESEARCH HEARING BEFORE THE U.S. CONGRESS, HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FIRST CONGRESS FIRST SESSION APRIL 26, 1989 [No. 46] Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology DEPOSITORY NOV 14 1989 commrrrEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY ROBERT A. ROE, New Jersey, Chairman GEORGE E. BROWN, JR., California ROBERT S. WALKER, Pennsylvania` JAMES H. SCHEUER, New York F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., MARILYN LLOYD, Tennessee Wisconsin DOUG WALGREN, Pennsylvania CLAUDINE SCHNEIDER, Rhode Island DAN GLICKMAN, Kansas SHERWOOD L BOEHLERT, New York HAROLD L VOLKMER, Missouri TOM LEWIS, Florida HOWARD WOLPE, Michigan DON ETI'MR, Pennsylvania BILL NELSON, Florida SID MORRISON, Washington RALPH M. HALL, Texas RON PACKARD, California DAVE McCURDY, Oklahoma ROBERT C. SMITH, New Hampshire NORMAN Y. MINETA, California PAUL B. HENRY, Michigan TIM VALENTINE, North Carolina HARRIS W. FAWELL, Illinois ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey D. FRENCH SLAUGHTER, JR., Virginia RICK BOUCHER, Virginia LAMAR SMITH, Texas TERRY L. BRUCE, Illinois JACK BUECHNER, Missouri RICHARD H. STALLINGS, Idaho CONSTANCE A. MORELLA, Maryland JAMES A. TRAFICANT, JR., Ohio CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut LEE H. HAMILTON, Indiana DANA ROHRABACHER, California HENRY J. NOWAK, New York STEVEN H. SCHIFF, New Mexico CARL C. PERKINS, Kentucky TOM CAMPBELL, California TOM McMILLEN, Maryland DAVID E. PRICE, North Carolina DAVID R. NAGLE, Iowa JIMMY HAYES, Louisiana DAVID E. SKAGGS, Colorado JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois HARRY JOHNSTON, Florida JOHN TANNER, Tennessee GLEN BROWDER, Alabama HAROLD P. HANSON, Executive Director ROBERT C. KETCHAM, General Counsel CAROLYN C. GREENFELD, Chief Clerk DAVID D. CLEMENT, Republican Chief of Staff FRANCIS X. MURRAY, Staff Director, Subcommittee on Energy Research & Development Boa LIIMATAINEN, Professional Staff Member Krrry RISING, Republican Special Assistant *Ranking Republican Member. CONTENTS WITNESSES Page April 26, 1989: Opening statement of Hon. Robert A. Roe, Chairman, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 1 Opening statement of Hon. Robert Walker, Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 2 Opening statement of Hon. Marilyn Lloyd, Chairman, Subcommittee on Energy Research and Development 3 Opening statement of Hon. Don Ritter 4 Opening statement of Hon. James Scheuer 5 Opening statement of Hon. Sid Morrison, Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Energy Research and Development 5 Opening statement of Hon. Ron Packard 6 Opening statement of Hon. Steven Schiff 6 Hon. Wayne Owens, the Representative in Congress from the Second District of the State of Utah 7 Hon. Howard C. Nielson, the Representative in Congress from the Third District of the State of Utah 7 Professor Stanley Pons, Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 11 Professor Martin Fleischmann, University of Southhampton, England 15 Discussion 19 Material submitted by. Drs. Pons and Fleischmann 37 Dr. Chase N. Peterson, President, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 55 Statement 71 Ira Magaziner, Consultant to the University of Utah, President, Telesis, Inc., USA, Inc 56 Statement 60 Discussion 79 Dr. Robert A. Huggins, Department of Materials Science and Engineer- ing, Stanford University, Stanford, California 93 Statement 98 Discussion 102 Dr. Steven E. Jones, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 105 Questions and answers for the record 111 Dr. Daniel L. Decker, Chairman, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 114 Statement 116 Questions and answers for the record 125 Dr. George H. Miley, Professor of Nuclear and Electrical Engineering and Director, Fusion Studies Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 127 Statement 131 Questions and answers for the record 145 Dr. Michael J. Saltmarsh, Associate Director, Fusion Energy Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 149 Statement 152 Questions and answers for the record 157 Discussion 159 April 26, 1989—Continued Page Dr. Harold P. Furth, Director, Princeton Plasma Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 168 Statement 172 Questions and answers for the record 176 Dr. Ronald G. Ballinger, Department of Nuclear Engineering, Depart- ment of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 178 Statement 181 Discussion 188 APPENDIX I: ADDITIONAI, STATEMENTS AND LETTERS FOR THE RECORD Statement of Hon. Jerry Costello, the Representative in Congress from the Twenty-First District of the State of Illinois 192 Statement of Elton J. Cairns, Director, Applied Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California 193 Texas A&M University and Texas Engineering Experiment Station 197 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN FUSION ENERGY RESEARCH WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1989 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY, Washington, D.C. The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 9:45 a.m., in room 2318, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Robert A. Roe [Chairman of the Committee] presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT A. ROE, CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY The CHAIRMAN. The Committee will come to order. We want to welcome everyone to this hearing this morning. As the first order of business, without objection, permission is granted for coverage of this meeting by television, radio, and still photography. If there is no objection, so ordered. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. In recent weeks, an atmosphere of high excitement and anticipa- tion has permeated the scientific community as startling possibili- ties for sustained nuclear fusion reactions at room temperature have emerged. The potential implications of a scientific break- through that can produce cold fusion are, at the least, in our judg- ment, spectacular. At the heart of this excitement is a collaborative experiment con- ducted by Professor Stanley Pons of the University of Utah and Professor Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton in England. Experimental work took place on the Utah campus, and the announcement of results first came on March 23rd. This an- nouncement preceded the traditional submission to a scientific journal where the article would be reviewed by other researchers in the field. Since March 23rd, researchers around the world have attempted to duplicate the experiments of Dr. Pons and Dr. Fleischmann with conflicting results, at least as reported in the press. Our objective in holding this hearing today is to examine the various developments to date to allow an interchange among ex- perts with differing views and to help Members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee assess the significance of the current information. The harnessing of fusion energy for eventual commercial use has been an illusive dream for decades, as we all know. The United States as well as other industrial nations have spent millions of (1) 2 dollars to fund various experimental approaches to generating sus- tained fusion energy. All of the efforts to date have required both very expensive machines and extraordinary temperature levels. The possibility of creating fusion energy at room temperature was wishful thinking only a few short months ago. Today, I believe we all have regained new hope. The hope of producing commercial fusion energy is the hope of an energy-hungry world and the need of an energy-hungry world. Energy, as we all know, is the life's blood of mankind's technologi- cal society. The Middle East has over one-half of the world's known oil resources and one-quarter of global natural resources—reserves, that is. The United States has a quarter of the world coal reserves and 4 percent of global oil reserves and 6 percent of world natural gases. What is perhaps most wondrous is that those facts may be superseded by man's intellectual inventiveness and dogged curiosi- ty. Today, we may be poised on the threshold of a new era. It is pos- sible that we may be witnessing the cold fusion revolution, so as to speak. If so, man will be unshackled from his dependence on finite energy resources. We are extremely pleased we have assembled here the two pro- fessors who may have discovered cold fusion and certainly have brought great excitement to the scientific community and to the world. Additionally, we have with us today several recognized ex- perts in the fields of fusion energy research and materials research from across the country, and I want to thank all of them for adjust- ing their demanding schedules to be able to appear before us on such a very short notice. Without further comment from me, I would at this time recog- nize our distinguished colleague and good friend and ranking Member, the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Robert Walker. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT WALKER, RANKING MI- NORITY MEMBER, COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECH- NOLOGY Mr. WALKER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In a period when our news seems to be filled with items telling us about drugs, budget deficits, the decline in America's economic position and environmental problems, the news of the possible dis- covery of cold fusion in Utah, even with its accompanying contro- versy, was wonderful news. If this discovery is fully proven, it will show once again the im- portance of, supporting a vigorous small science enterprise in this period of large engineering and science projects. The possibility that