Cold Fusion Reactors

[ngc7293]

In Trek, Fusion Reactors are mentioned here, there and everywhere. But I was wondering if they use Cold Fusion. I tried looking up Cold Fusion on Memory Alpha but got nothing.

Any ideas?

 

[Timo]

Backstage sources suggest that the compression necessary for fusing the positively charged nuclei in starship reactors is achieved by "fusion initiators" (TNG Tech Manual pp.76-77), resulting in a "conventional P-P fusion reaction". This creates a "standing pulsed fusion shock" which supposedly keeps up the compression.

This is all backstage talk, not evident on screen. Even then, we have no idea whether the proton-proton fusion there involves high or low temperatures, or how the initiators are supposed to work. Forcefield compression to high pressure? Phaser pulses to high temperature? Something more conventional, or more exotic? For all we know, the fusion process might be a refined and elegant one, indeed "cold" by today's standards.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[publiusr]

People just can't let it go:
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/at...nergy-could-bring-cold-fusion-to-front-burner
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-09/14/cold-fusion

This is most likely a chemical reaction. Some news on that front:
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/W...ve_quantum_effects_in_cold_chemistry_999.html

This is interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fission
http://www.newsbyrd.com/cold-fission-is-getting-some-lukewarm-attention/

 

[sojourner]

^Star Trek is a fictional future. Absolutely no reason cold fusion might not work in that setting.