Search for spontaneous fission emitters in Atlantis II (Part II)

Abstract

In this paper we describe an attempt to isolate superheavy elements from Atlantis II hot brine deposits. Volatile, sulfidic elements (Cd, Pb) were isolated and investigated for spontaneous fission events with a mica-plastic solid state track detector sandwich. During nearly two years exposure time no spontaneous fission activity was observed. The upper limit for the concentration of superheavy elements (following this chemistry) in the Atlantis II-material is found to be 1.4-10-14 g/g. This limit is more than one order of magnitude lower than the concentration of a spontaneous fission activity in material from the Cheleken hot brine, as observed by Flerov and coworkers.

Search for Superheavy Elements in the Nature

“…At the present time it is to state apart from the Marburg group around R. Brandt [49,50] in the main the Dubna team still systematically deals with the search for SHE in the nature [17,43,44,51,52], in which case both the groups cooperate with each other [40,53]. Without doubt, in this ease the Dubna team has done so far the most extensive and systematic work in this field and there the only positive results have been also achieved and could not be disproved up to the present.…”

Search for Spontaneous fission activity in Salton Sea and Atlantis II hot brines

“…In the experiments carried out in Marburg no spontaneous fission activity has been detected in the products of chemical processing of the deposits obtained in the region of Atlantis II [3]. Furthermore, this activity has not been revealed in the experiments to measure the primary deposit of Atlantis II using a neutron detector [4].…”

“…Therefore it was interesting to remeasure the activity of both the Atlantis II and Salton Sea samples using the neutron detector of the JINR Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, the sensitivity of which reached 10-13 g/g (5). Such measurements are of interest in view of the fact that it was impossible to eliminate the possibility of considerable losses of the sought nuclide in the process of the chemical processing performed in (3). This kind of measurements were carried out using the neutron detector jointly by the Dubna and Marburg teams at Dubna.…”

The Search for Superheavy Elements

“…Attempts to further concentrate this activity by chemical procedures which are more specific for the expected chemical behaviour of SHE's failed because of increased losses of the activity at each stage of processing [35]. No evidence for spontaneous fission decay has been found in solid deposists from hot springs at the bottom of the Red Sea which are assumed to be of a similar geological origin as the Cheleken samples [36,37], even though their chemical composition is different.…”