Huizenga, author of the 1994 book "Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century," believes "it's been laid to rest, and I don't see why they're looking at it again," he said in a telephone interview from Rochester. "We looked into the subject very thoroughly. I don't think much will come of it," he said of the review. Without clear-cut results, it's "rather worthless to continue plowing that ground." A great deal of follow-up occurred, but "there have been no positive results that have come along since then which were worthy of establishing another committee," he said.

Some of the researchers who claimed they had substantiated the findings 15 years ago are still claiming results but without any evidence, he said.

Pons and Fleischmann reported enormous amounts of excess energy emanating from their apparatus, he said. If that were true, "that would produce an equivalent amount of fusion products (such as neutrons) and those fusion products should be very easy to see. And we do not see them. The Pons and Fleischmann announcement was "outlandish — quite different from that of Jones," Huizenga said.

Jones and company are "working near the background" level of nuclear material in the environment. "It's very difficult to say one way or another."

If Jones' results hold up, Huizenga said, "they would be very interesting from a scientific point of view but would have no interest in terms of producing energy." "So one has to keep these two claims very separate.

"And Jones is working so near background it's hard to refute his results," Huizenga said, "and on the other hand it's very hard to prove."

---

E-mail: bau@desnews.com