Page "Bohrium" Paragraph 12

The synthesis of bohrium was first attempted in 1976 by scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna using this cold fusion reaction.

Analysis was by detection of spontaneous fission ( SF ).

They discovered two SF activities, one with a 1-2 ms half-life and one with a 5 s activity.

Based on the results of other cold fusion reactions, they concluded that they were due to < sup > 261 </ sup > Bh and < sup > 257 </ sup > Db respectively.

However, later evidence gave a much lower SF branching for < sup > 261 </ sup > Bh reducing confidence in this assignment.

The assignment of the dubnium activity was later changed to < sup > 258 </ sup > Db, presuming that the decay of bohrium was missed.

The 2 ms SF activity was assigned to < sup > 258 </ sup > Rf resulting from the 33 % EC branch.