@wooly_mammoth
I am not going to give you a catalog of the data proving that the effect is real. There is evidence if you choose to pursue it. The scientists were inquiring and asking for physicists to examine the phenomenon they discovered. They were chemists and could not explain what they found.
The branch of physics to which the phenomenon applies was one with little research since its discovery. Namely weak force physics.

The discovery was made by chemists asking physicists to verify. The physicists not being chemists botched the job and there were also problems replicating due to quality of the Palladium Lattice electrodes used.

There was no theory to explain what was occurring. It was a discovery that needed repetition and theory to explain what had occurred.

Instead there was a vendetta launched and the scientists were accused of fraud. It was decided by consensus.