NASA's Basement Nuclear Reactor

It looks like cold fusion might be making a reappearance. NASA is working on a nuclear reactor that is the size of a home water heater. The new technology is called Lattice Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR). LENR uses weak nuclear forces, which are responsible for the decay of subatomic particles and "involves setting up the right conditions to turn these weak forces into energy."

From the Gizmag article: "The electrons in the metal lattice are made to oscillate so that "the energy applied to the electrons is concentrated into only a few of them. When they become energetic enough, the electrons are forced into the hydrogen protons to form slow neutrons. These are immediately drawn into the nickel atoms, making them unstable. This sets off a reaction in which one of the neutrons in the nickel atom splits into a proton, an electron and an antineutrino. This changes the nickel into copper, and releases energy without dangerous ionizing radiation. The trick is to configure the process so that it releases more energy than it needs to get it going."

Isn't that always the trick? Don't expect to get your own basement reactor soon. In the words of Joseph Zawody, a NASA scientist on the project, "From my perspective, this is still a physics experiment."