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For Centuries, Alchemists Dreamed of Turning Common Metals Into Gold, But They Always Failed. Now, A Company Claims to Have Achieved This Feat Within A Tokamak Fusion Reactor.
The Ancient Dream of Alchemists May Be Close to Coming True. The Company Marathon Fusion Claims That Its Tokamak Fusion Reactor Can Turn Mercury Into Gold as a Byproduct of Energy Generation.
Since the Greeks, Alchemists Sought the Philosopher’s Stone. It Would Allow Them to Turn Common Metals, Like Lead and Copper, Into Pure Gold.
These Practices Combined Rudimentary Chemistry and Esoteric Beliefs, Blending Science and Spirituality. For Many, It Was A Path to Enlightenment, But Also A Quick Way to Get Rich.
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However, The Most They Achieved Was To Extract Money From Deluded Sponsors. No Real Gold Came Out of Their Improvised Laboratories.
The Turning Point in The 20th Century
With Advances in Science, Physicists Discovered The Transmutation of Elements Using The Atom. But The Costs Were High and The Results Minuscule.
The Process Was So Expensive That It Wasn’t Worth It. The Idea Eventually Became Forgotten As A Scientific Curiosity, With No Practical Application.
Now, Marathon Fusion Claims To Have Changed This Scenario. And The Promise Is Bold.
According to The Company, Its Tokamak Reactor Can Generate Clean Energy and Produce Five Tons of Gold From Mercury For Every Gigawatt of Electricity Generated.
How The Process Would Work
The Basis of The Method Comes From Techniques To Create Tritium In Reactors. This Happens When The Reactor Vessel Receives A Lithium Coating.
Lithium Absorbs Neutrons, Splits, and Forms Alpha Particles and Tritium Atoms. Marathon Proposes To Use Mercury-198 Instead of Lithium.
When A Neutron Hits Mercury-198, It Becomes Unstable Mercury-197. This Isotope Then Decays And Turns into Gold-197.
If A Lithium-Mercury Alloy Is Used, It Is Still Possible To Produce Tritium Along With Gold. The Company Says This Would Increase The Efficiency Of The Process.
Extracting The Formed Gold
A Preprint Article From The Company Details The Plan. The Material Suggests Using Mercury Enriched With 90% Of The Desired Isotope To Achieve Better Results.
After Exposure To The Reactor, The Amalgam Formed Would Go Through Chemical Treatment. This Process Would Separate The Gold From The Remaining Mercury.
Since Gold Is A Noble and Nearly Inert Element, The Separation Would Be Simple. It Would Not Require Complex Techniques, According To Marathon Scientists.
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