Comment by GuB-42
7 days ago
Note that the gold produced is gold-203, which is radioactive and decays into mercury-203 (also radioactive) in a minute. It is not the gold that we know of, which is gold-197.
It is not the first transmutation of lead into gold by far. A transmutation from lead into gold-197 as been done in 1980.
In all these cases, the gold is produced in quantities so tiny that its value as a precious metal is effectively zero.
> mercury-203 (also radioactive)
What a horrible combination, mercury is poisonous enough by itself, it truly has no business being radioactive.
And if that's not enough, mercury-203 decays into thallium-203 (stable) with a half-life of 46.6 days. Thallium is even more toxic than mercury. You really don't want that gold-203.