In the present work, we have demonstrated, by starting from rather general assumptions, that a cold-fusion research programme can be established on three physically independent approaches; one classical, another quantum-mechanical, yet another electrodynamical. Equations of motion will be applied to a specific geometric-structural model of three-particle clusters, e(1)(-) p(d)e(2)(-). Here the heavy particle (proton, deuteron) is assumed to perform an orbital motion about the axis which joins the motionless (or almost motionless) e(1), e(2) electrons. Furthermore, we have directed our study towards metallic lattices of the palladium group to see just how the heavy particle can experience such an acrobatic dynamics. For this reason we considered the action of a time-dependent electric field combined with a constant magnetic induction (known as a Lorentz force), presumably materialized within a palladium lattice structure, to see a possible physical mechanism by which a particular three-particle cluster may pass from one stationary state to the other. (C) 2004 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.