Energy Obtained by Transmutation

Editor’s Note

This editorial comments on the possibility of deriving energy, perhaps in explosive form, from nuclear transmutation. The likelihood, it suggests, is remote. Meanwhile, recent experiments had demonstrated the artificial transmutation of most elements, including gold, though without any repercussions for world financial stability. The goal of harnessing nuclear energy seemed far off, partly because significant energy can be released only in processes involving the heaviest and rare elements. Yet the first atomic weapon was detonated only six years later, made possible by the enrichment of vast quantities of uranium with the easily fissionable isotope 235U, which constitutes only 0.7% of the element naturally.　　中文

MR. Robert D. Potter, of “Science Service”, Washington, D.C., points out that the confirmation of the artificial breakdown of uranium announced in New York (see also Nature, Feb. 11, p. 233) is in the direct succession of experiments carried out in recent years on the transmutation of the elements. For centuries, alchemists had dreamed of transmuting base metals into gold. It was imagined that enormous wealth would be at hand for the discoverer of this transmutation, and dire forecasts of the effects of this discovery were made, such as a complete revolution on the financial pattern of the world. We know that this transmutation has now been achieved for most of the known chemical elements. Transmutation’s biggest result is the theoretical incentive it has provided for further physical researches. In a similar way, the dream of releasing the large amounts of energy locked inside atoms has been in the minds of men for many years. When the most efficient transformation of energy takes place in the atom of uranium so that a neutron can slip into it, the energy released is only one fifteenth of that required to bring it about. In fact, neutrons are so easily absorbed by all atomic nuclei that many of the neutrons produced with such poor efficiency will only go into atoms other than uranium. There need be little fear of an explosion in Nature due to uranium. The very heavy elements, in which such an energy release can be secured, occur only in very small amounts in the Earth’s crust. The release of atomic energy can only be achieved by direct experiment with this end in view and with elaborate laboratory apparatus.　　中文

(143, 328; 1939)