Production of the Transuranium Elements

Gram quantities of many of the transuranium elements through californium-252 will be produced for research purposes in a production program centered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Plutonium-242 produced in the Savannah River production reactors will be transmuted to various higher actinide isotopes in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (thermal flux—3 × 10¹⁵ neutrons/ cm²-sec) and recovered in the adjoining Transuranium Processing Plant. Calculations which optimized the production scheme are presented. The intermediate goal of the program, production of one gram of Cf²⁵², should be accomplished by 1968.