Message from Prof. Akito Takahashi

Hon. President

 Are you enjoying your life? Everybody likes peaceful and high-quality life. Nobody likes war, terrorism and poverty. The 20^th century may be a singular period of history with its rapid development of science and technology. Impulsive consumption of fossil fuel, global warming, population explosion, South vs. North, problems of development and even globalization of economy and information have made acute the chronic trilemma of human society: conflict among a) economical development, b) energy and food resources, and c) global environment.. Sustainable Development is now widely regarded to be the unique possible way for long-range survival for human beings in the 21^st century.

 To solve the energy problem, the idea of Best Mixing of various available energy sources may be only a compromise and a temporary solution. To mitigate the pollution of environment, cleaner energy resources are being looked for. Solar energy and wind power can cover only a small portion of energy needs. Construction of new nuclear power plants is deadlocked due to safety concerns and expensive processing/storage/destruction technologies for radioactive wastes. Development of thermo-nuclear fusion reactors is also stalled due to budget constrains and very difficult technical problems.

 People once dreamed that nuclear energy could bring small, safe, concentrated energy packages for homes and automobiles and aids for the handicapped. That dream was disappointed by both fission and thermonuclear fusion technologies.

 You know that the historical 1989 claim of “cold fusion” had renewed hope of a portable clean nuclear reactor. The following great wave of denial and hostility has kicked the claim and further research efforts out of the mainstream of sciences. Nevertheless, due to disinformation, very few people know that the research has been continued by several hundreds of researchers in the world in the last 15 years. The efforts by this faint stream of research have now revealed that there exist new kinds of nuclear effects directly related to the nature of condensed matter. The nuclear effects in condensed matter are much more than real “cold fusion”, they include important nuclear effects such as transmutations and resulting release of energy as significant heat with minimal and safe radiation. Low levels of radiationare found in at least some reactions, but are usually absorbed within the cell  itself so the system is categorically safe. Through discussions at international conferences (ICCF-1 through ICCF-10), major part of researchers  agree  that the  name of “cold fusion” was misleading. A new name, closer to the exact phenomenon, Condensed Matter Nuclear Science, is most appropriate.

 The new field,  Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (CMNS), treats nuclear effects in and/or on condensed matter, targeting its application for portable clean nuclear sources. This is an inter- and multi-disciplinary academic field, including nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, surface physics and chemistry, electro-chemistry. CMNS applications involve many other fields of science and technology (nuclear engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, laser science and engineering, material science, nano-technology, bio-technology, energy politics, etc,. To promote the development of CMNS and establish the academic field of CMNS, we need highly efficient cooperative efforts of researchers and related people working in different fields. International linkage and collaborations are needed. Therefore the establishment of international society has been a dream of people related to “cold fusion” researches. The establishment of the International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science, March 20^th 2004, is a historical milestone.

  The field of CMNS offers great hope for realizing clean portable energy sources, in deepening knowledge of combined new field of nuclear and condensed matter sciences, in exchanging advanced knowledge from different fields, in harvesting fruits of energy sources and for other industrial applications, and etc. The action for this goal needs integrated efforts of many younger and elder people from many fields with sufficiently supporting funds. Your private and company-level participation to the Society will make a strong and steady step toward the great goal! Please join us, dream a dream together, and contribute to the great effort of constructing the new field of science and technology.

(September 6, 2004: Akito Takahashi)