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Utah State University scientist Wilford N. Hansen told state officials Tuesday that his tentative analysis supports Stanley Pons' and Martin Fleischmann's claims of large amounts of energy in their cold-fusion experiments.
Dr. Hansen cautioned that his analysis was preliminary and he will not sign on to it until he has reviewed more information and heard from other scientists.
"The total excess amounts to hundreds of electron volts per palladium atom in some cases. This seems to rule out ordinary chemistry as a source of the excess energy," Dr. Hansen told members of the state Fusion/Energy Advisory Council, charged with overseeing the $5 million state investment in cold fusion.
He also thanked the two chemists for their cooperation "in this difficult and tedious investigation." Dr. Hansen, a member of the state council, was chosen to review the data after Dr. Pons refused to turn over his data to an external review last December.
Drs. Pons and Fleischmann remain out of state, but their attorney, C. Gary Triggs, was in Utah Tuesday and he complimented Dr. Hansen for his "courage and fortitude" in supporting his clients, who have been reluctant to share all their results with anyone but patent attorneys for the past two years.
Mr. Triggs said he expected the positive report and did not consider it vindication. "There's never been a sense from my people that there is anything to vindicate."
Dr. Hansen's report appeared to provide enough impetus for the council to continue paying attorneys to pursue the nine patent applications related to cold fusion, although the chairman of the council, Raymond L. Hixson, acknowledged it still was not known whether there was any value in the applications.
State council member Karen Morse, Utah State University provost and chemist, was cautious about optimism over Dr. Hansen's report.
"We've got to get some criticism of Wilford's approach, which he is quite open to," Dr. Morse said, adding that she felt the review was really only "25 percent along at this point."
Closure of the National Cold Fusion Institute when the state money runs out in June is considered a foregone conclusion by most council members, although one legislator said Tuesday that further state funding may be possible later.
"In the foreseeable future, the Legislature may have to make another investment," said Rep. Mike Dmitrich, D-Price.
Council members also heard from U. physics professor Haven Bergeson, who directs the physics group at the National Cold Fusion Institute. Dr. Bergeson noted that the Soviet government has committed about $10 million to cold-fusion research at 20 labs.
Dr. Bergeson said he believes cold fusion, particularly the heat-producing variety claimed by Drs. Pons and Fleischmann, remains "a long shot."
He said he has more confidence in the very tiny amounts of fusion claimed by Brigham Young University physicist Steven Jones and others.