The researchers fired a beam of calcium ions, each containing 20 protons, into a target of californium, a highly radioactive synthetic substance with 98 protons.

ECONOMIST: Nuclear physics: Magical shell game | The

But for more than 30 years, the company had a device called a californium neutron flux multiplier, or CFX, in a specially built labyrinth beneath Building 82 at its labs near Rochester, New York.

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The device's primary source of neutron radiation was the radioactive element californium, but the stream of neutrons produced by the californium was multiplied by passing it through a lattice of highly enriched uranium U-235, whose nuclear fission released additional neutrons.

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