Cold Fusion / Warm Fusion

I just got off the phone with an associate of Dr. George Miley, distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, recipient of the prestigious Edward Teller Medal from the American Nuclear Society and the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Award in Fusion Technology. Apparently, Dr. Miley has pioneered an innovative approach generating useful energy from fusion.

As I discuss in my book on renewables, fusion energy has remained the elusive Holy Grail of energy research for the last half century; the prospect of unlimited, clean, inexpensive energy was been very alluring. The interviews I’ve conducted on the subject have me convinced that some flavor of controlled fusion will eventually replace all the big, expensive stuff we’re continuing to build here in the early 21^st Century.

Dr. Miley’s technology is essentially “warm fusion,” operating at temperatures of 900C. According to what I’ve read, virtually all the major elements of the technology have been tested both experimentally and theoretically, so that with a relatively modest set of technology integrations and engineering experiments, break-even fusion energy can be demonstrated within 5 years, if they can get the funding in place.

If anyone wishes to know more about this, please let me know and I’ll put you in touch.