One of the first things neutron transmutation was used for was to convert gold into mercury.
Perhaps you're wondering why. The reason is that Au is monoisotopic (197), but natural Hg is not. The US Bureau of Standards wanted monoisotopic Hg for its sharp spectral lines. So in 1939 they shipped a quantity of the US Treasury's gold reserve to California, to be bombarded with neutrons from the big Berkeley cyclotron. Later it was sent to Oak Ridge, to the X-10 pile.
publius
npub1wt…lsr28
2025-05-10 18:45:12 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…ducr
Author Public Key
npub1wtxe3gaa80jaq03xnxre2k98zz22t8q8576m4cgtxt8fk5rjyekqwlsr28Seen on
wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2025-05-10 18:45:12 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "564c0c2150264a1848910c076f0743988247e806c1aa070f8011e0fabf4268f8",
"pubkey": "72cd98a3bd3be5d03e2699879558a71094a59c07a7b5bae10b32ce9b5072266c",
"created_at": 1746902712,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"proxy",
"https://mastodon.sdf.org/@publius/114485016176998742",
"web"
],
[
"p",
"0cdcb6c1df0b8a9ef362b21666852a303d68660a1e898dfa37b5d65531e57ef0"
],
[
"e",
"e0fe69f2577de72135cacd0791e3074b21c183913cc30959cd3dd44912f07c8a",
"",
"root",
"0cdcb6c1df0b8a9ef362b21666852a303d68660a1e898dfa37b5d65531e57ef0"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://mastodon.sdf.org/users/publius/statuses/114485016176998742",
"activitypub"
],
[
"L",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"l",
"pink.momostr.activitypub:https://mastodon.sdf.org/users/publius/statuses/114485016176998742",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"-"
]
],
"content": "One of the first things neutron transmutation was used for was to convert gold into mercury.\n\nPerhaps you're wondering why. The reason is that Au is monoisotopic (197), but natural Hg is not. The US Bureau of Standards wanted monoisotopic Hg for its sharp spectral lines. So in 1939 they shipped a quantity of the US Treasury's gold reserve to California, to be bombarded with neutrons from the big Berkeley cyclotron. Later it was sent to Oak Ridge, to the X-10 pile.",
"sig": "0fa37477f7b5fe7f797f50249022415b2a237983aa7525bf38a4da190baa3266610b62850efe1059e53327e27743a9cac9b336d8f466b04775aca365f60ea384"
}