rationalskepticism.org

One possible explanation for "cold fusion" generating heat is the reaction of hydrogen with oxygen to form water. This is exothermic and could explain the heat formation reported. This possibility is suggested by the following observation: in microbiology an oxygen free chamber for culturing anaerobic bacteria (bacteria which cannot grow in the presence of oxygen) is produced by flooding with nitrogen and then streaming hydrogen over a palladium catalyst to react the last bit of oxygen to form water. I haven't looked into reports of cold fusion closely but apparently work in this area is continuing in some places. To prove that a fusion reaction is actually taking place there must be evidence that a nuclear reaction has occurred. There are a variety of possible fusion reactions. In one simple case of hydrogen fusion, two protons have to be brought close enough for the weak force to convert either of the identical protons into a neutron forming deutrium (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion). An article on "cold fusion" appears at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion