2012

Nihonium

• Kosuke Morita and his team at RIKEN
• bombarded bismuth-209 with ions of zinc-70
• and detected a chain of six alpha decays
• stemming from nihonium-278,
• an isotope of element 113,
• nihonium-278 decaying to roentgenium-274,
• roentgenium-274 to meitnerium-270
• meitnerium-270 to bohrium-266
• bohrium-266 to dubnium-262
• dubnium-262 to lawrencium-258
• and lawrencium-258 to mendelevium-254.
• Their success concluded a series of experiments
• beginning in 2004, during which
• they synthesized element-113 decaying to dubnium,
• but the dubnium decayed by spontaneous fission,
• so did not result in lawrencium or mendelevium
• with their well-known decay profiles.

Atomic number 113

• All six nihonium isotopes are unstable,
• with the longest having a half life of 20 seconds.
• Predicted physical and chemical properties
• can not yet be confirmed.

Radioactivity of the rising sun

• Kosuke Morita hoped that the discovery
• of nihonium in Japan could help the Japanese heal
• from the Fukushima disaster.
• In March 2011, a tsunami hit Fukushima
• and knocked out power at the nuclear power plant,
• causing the core meltdowns of three reactors
• and displacing 154,000 people
• in addition to the 316,000 displaced by the tsunami.
• Caesium-137 and iodine-131 entered the ocean
• where strong currents dispersed it,
• affecting fisheries in the Pacific.
• Radioactive isotopes contaminated food
• produced up to 320 kilometers away,
• which people were urged not to eat.
• Excessive radioactive iodine-131
• was found at 18 water-purification plants,
• so children were urged not to drink water.