[grey_whiskers]

I must confess I *would* like to see details of the purported mechanism, including temperature-dependent reaction rates -- the *nuclear* reaction wouldn't mind, but the chemical lattice which acts to get the deuterium 'in position' might.

Cheers!

[RightWhale]

Deuterium is chemically nearly hydrogen. In the gas line to domestic or commercial gas appliances is a mesh, palladium or platinum or one of those metals that scavenges the hydrogen from the gas because hydrogen in the gas is not desireable for combustion qualities, and the mesh gets hot. Similarly the catalytic converter in car exhaust lines gets hot as it scavenges NOx from the system. Just supply deuterium (or hydrogen) to the fusion reactor and it will get hot without nuclear reaction.