Forbidden nuclear reactions ('cold fusion')

M. Fleishmann and S. Pons published a communication that has since become infamous, in which they claimed that during the electrolysis of a heavy water solution of LiOD between a palladium cathode and a platinum anode, an extra heat evolution attributed to nuclear physics processes was detected in 1989. Since then, this phenomenon called cold fusion has been studied by many people. However, the experiments provided inexplicable and often unreproducible phenomena, and no one has yet provided an acceptable theoretical explanation for nuclear fusion reactions taking place near room temperature. Therefore, the scientific community is strongly divided regarding the phenomenon, and a significant number of physicists, in the absence of an acceptable theoretical explanation, even reject the possibility of the existence of cold fusion. What was described in the article was explained under 3 subheadings: The theoretical possibility of low-energy nuclear reactions: general statement and examples; A specific model and its results; Final thoughts. (Zs.S.)