(FORTUNE Magazine) – Remember B. Stanley Pons, a former professor at the University of Utah, and his British collaborator, Martin Fleischmann? In 1989 they claimed to have produced cold fusion in a jar, potentially opening an era of abundant and inexpensive energy. Their discovery was later discredited because nobody else could reliably and repeatedly reproduce their results. The pair are continuing their experiments in Europe. But cold fusion isn't dead yet. A team of scientists at SRI International, a Menlo Park, California, R&D firm, is expected to report that it has been able to switch on and off power production in three types of fusion jars by carefully controlling and monitoring the electrochemical reactions inside. Like Fleischmann and Pons, the SRI researchers used simple tabletop apparatus, including battery-powered electrochemical cells with palladium and platinum electrodes submerged in heavy water. What takes place in the SRI jars isn't entirely clear -- an unknown chemical reaction, perhaps? -- since no radiation emissions that would indicate fusion have been recorded. But the researchers speculate fusion is going on since their experiments have produced heat. Like other scientists, Phillip Schewe of the American Institute of Physics is skeptical until at least three major labs, like Caltech, Bell Labs, and Brookhaven, can reproduce the SRI discovery. Then, he says, ''my interest would be bumped back on track. At the moment, cold fusion leaves me cold.'' But Schewe thinks there may be a new kind of chemistry at work. ''Discoveries have come from left field. It needs exploring.''