Announcing plans to make gold out of mercury sounds like something from a medieval wizard’s playbook, but according to San Francisco start-up Marathon Fusion, it might soon be reality.
The company claimed that its nuclear fusion technology could transform mercury into gold using a process called nuclear transmutation, an alchemist’s dream, only with high-energy neutrons instead of cauldrons.
It made the claim in a white paper entitled 'Scalable Chrysopoeia via (n, 2n) Reactions Driven by Deuterium-Tritium Fusion Neutrons'.
Early reactions from experts have been positive, the Financial Times reported, but the idea remains unproven and Marathon’s paper has yet to undergo peer review.
Marathon suggests that a future fusion plant could produce up to 5,000kg of gold each year. At today's prices, that's $600 million-worth of the yellow metal.
There’s a hitch: some of the gold may be slightly radioactive, needing up to 18 years in storage before it’s safe for jewellery. Still, if it works, fusion power might just turn science fiction into fiscal fact.