this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2026
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My first thought was “what happens to all that gold under neutron irradiation?” Apparently it transmutes back to Mercury 198 with beta decay, which is the wrong isotope. But if Mercury 198 gets hit again… I think it turns into 199, which is also stable?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold-198
A lot of papers for these reactions are behind stupid subscription paywalls :(
Still though, it does seem extremely fortuitous, and it’s possible the gold doesn’t become impossibly radioactive. Maybe there’s some other chain that will cause problems, but the immediate concern in the bulk materials seems… alright.
You might want to check out our lord and saviour Sci-hub
uhm... if gold198 turns back into mercury in 64 hours, and is radioactive in the meantime.... that sucks. But what they are doing is turning Mercury198 into mercury197, and that decays into (real) gold197 .... afaiu.