Creating tennessine required one of the rarest materials on Earth — berkelium-249. It's produced in only one laboratory in the world (Oak Ridge, Tennessee), and it decays in 330 days. So scientists had a window of just months: manufacture berkelium, ship it across the ocean to Dubna, and run the synthesis. Six months of continuous bombardment yielded 6 atoms. Tennessine is a halogen by its table position, but will likely be a metal — not a gas like fluorine or chlorine.
Tennessine is one of the hardest elements to synthesize. Creating it requires a target of berkelium-249 — a substance produced at only one reactor in the world (Oak Ridge, Tennessee). Accumulating 22 milligrams of berkelium took 250 days of continuous reactor operation.
The target was then urgently shipped to Dubna before the berkelium could decay (its half-life is 330 days). The entire project was a race against time and radioactive decay.
Tennessine is extremely radioactive and exists only milliseconds. It's synthesized a few atoms at a time. It poses no practical threat.
Synthesizing tennessine was one of the most complex logistics operations in science. Berkelium was made in Oak Ridge (USA), shipped across the ocean to Dubna (Russia), and used before it decayed.
Tennessine is a halogen (the fluorine, chlorine, bromine group), but it will likely be a metal at room temperature. Relativistic effects turn chemistry upside down.
6 months of continuous accelerator work — and only 6 atoms. Each existed about 50 milliseconds.
The 22 milligrams of berkelium-249 for the target cost millions of dollars and required 250 days of continuous nuclear reactor operation at Oak Ridge. The target was then urgently shipped across the ocean to Dubna.
Tennessee is the only US state immortalized in a chemical element's name. The state hosts Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Tennessee — all contributed to the discovery.
| Isotope | Mass (u) | Abundance | Half-life | Decay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
293Ts☢ | 293.208240 | synthetic | 22 ms | α |
294Ts☢ | 294.210460 | synthetic | 51 ms | α |
Cyclotron bombardment of berkelium