Cold Fusion #1 Claims NASA Chief

A Chief NASA scientist, Dennis Bushnell has came out in support of Andrea Rossi's E-Cat technology, but denies any type of nuclear fusion is taking place, saying it is probably beta decay per the Widom Larson Theory.

Outline and quotes

• They Dare Not Call It Fusion

  
  

  This is indeed a fusion reaction, but the "Widom Larsen" proponents still try to argue otherwise. They claim that true "nuclear fusion" can only occur if a proton is pushed through the Coulomb barrier when the full repulsion is felt. Anything else, they claim, is a "neutron capture" event.

  
  
• 
  Hiding the Legacy of Suppression
  

  First, they have to do "something" to make themselves "stand out."

             Secondly, by naming the emerging technology "LENR" or "neutron capture", they can possibly avoid the history of cold fusion being brought up.
  
            Finally, if something as "impossible" as Cold Fusion becomes a reality, then it raises the question anew about what other technologies the scientific community deemed "impossible" might actually be possible after all.
  
  
  
• Andrea Rossi's Take On "Widom Larsen" Theory

• Accepting Reality 

My comment:

You don't need to understand something fully in order to use it. The cavemen didn't understand why fire works, but they used it anyway.  What you do need to know is how to reproduce it at will and to control it well enough to use it safely.

A lot of this controversy seems to be about the theory of how it works.  While that is important, it may be even more important to know how to use it in order to do useful work.