Element 109

Element 109 -On August 29,1992, Element 109 was made and identified by physicists at the Heavy Ion Research Laboratory(G.S.I.),Darmstadt, Germany, by bombarding a target of 209Bi with accelerated nuclei of 58Fe. The production of Element 109 has been extremely small. It took a week of target bombardment (10-11 nuclear encounters) to produce a single atom of 109. Oganessian and his team at Dubna in 1994 repeated the Darmstadt experiment using a 10-fold irradiation dose. One fission event from seven alpha decays of 109 was observed, thus indirectly confirming the existence of isotope 266-109. The IUPAC has recommended adoption of the name meitnerium (Mt) for this element, honoring L. Meitner.