Getting closer to Element 115 [news]
From: campbell@ufomind.com (Glenn Campbell, Las Vegas)
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 16:21:26 -0800
|
Via: [withheld by request]@llnl.gov
From LLNL's own NEWSLINE:
----- Begin Press Release -----
Subject: Russia-Livermore Scientists may have produced elusive heavy element 114
A Russian-Livermore experiment at Russia's Joint Institute for Nuclear
Research in Dubna my have produced the long-sought element 114, according
to news reports out of Russia.
The Dubna accelerator fired calcium-48 atoms into a Livermore supplied
target of Plutonium-244 in a 40 day experiment that wrapped up at the end
of december 1998. Detectors picked up signs of a single atom of a heavy
element, tentatively identified as 114, by a tell-tale sequence of
alpha-particle emissions followed by a spontaneous fission, due to decay of
the atom and the subsequent decay of it's "daughters".
Livermore nuclear chemist Ken Moody spoke with caution about the
experiments. "these are very interesting findings," he said. "The analysis
we are doing now should tell us how to interpret the results."
"If confirmed, the synthesis of element 114 will create an important new
opportunity to study the physics of extrememly heavy elements," said Energy
secretary Bill Richardson. "creating 114 has long been a goal of Nuclear
Physicists. It is significant that this latest experiment is an
international effort, a collaborative project involving Russian scientists
at Dubna, and American scientists from DOE's Lawrence Livermore National
Lab".
Livermore's participation was supported by Laboratory Directed Research and
Development. Moody and collaborators Ron Lougheed, John Wild, Nancy Stoyer
and Mark Stoyer of the Analytical and Nuclear Chemistry division supplied
the plutonium target and participated in the design and implementation of
the experiments, and the subsequent data analysis. They have worked in the
highly competitive field of heavy element sysnthesis at the three world's
major centers for such research, in Berkeley, Dubna and Darmstadt, and are
careful not to count chickens prematurely.
Still, they agree it is an exciting time. Synthesizing element 114 is a
long sought goal because of theoretical predictions that it will be part of
an "island of stability" in an ocean of instability. Lighter (but still
extremely heavy) elements like 108 last only thousandths of a second before
falling apart. The observations at Dubna suggested a 30-second lifetime for
the 114 candidate, a veritable Rock of Gibraltar compared to some of its
more ephemeral neighbors.
----- End Press Release -----
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RELEVANCE OF THIS MESSAGE: The claims of Bob Lazar
Index: Element 115 (#1)
Created: Jan 29, 1999
