What's the most profitable use for an elemental transmuter?

The cold fusion generator is ready, loaded with tons of heavy water. The scientists stand by ready to measure the energy output of the amazing new technology.

They turn it on, and as expected, get streams of helium and oxygen gas emerging from the reaction chamber, as two deuterium atoms fuse into one helium nucleus, leaving the oxygen atoms to sort themselves out.

Unfortunately, the expected power output fails to materialise. In fact, they record exactly zero energy released or emitted from the fusion reaction. Curious.

They also notice a plausible but unexpected contaminant in the gas output: radioactive fluorine-18, formed from the fusion of deuterium and oxygen. As they try to fathom how such a reaction could possibly occur, a precipitate starts to form in the water which turns out to be sulfur, formed from the fusion of two oxygen nuclei. While reaching for a cloth to mop up his spilled coffee, one of the engineers knocks the handwavium dial and the sulfur vanishes instantly along with a significant portion of the oxygen, leaving a cloud of atomised chromium and an overabundance of free hydrogen, which promptly overpressures and bursts the reaction vessel.

Once they put the pieces back together and work out how the plebotium works, the scientists realise they have built the first Elemental Transmuter. It can take in a batch of source elements, and perform any nuclear fusion reaction without consideration of conservation of nuclear binding energy. Charge and lepton number must still be preserved, so the same number of protons, neutrons and electrons must appear on each side.

Inevitably, the machine is then purloined by a Mad Businessman who intends to use it to maximise personal profit.

What are the most profitable reactions you could perform using this machine? By profitable I mean the market value of the end products greatly exceeds the cost of the raw materials.

The machine is capable of producing several kilos of output per hour, from a reaction vessel that is a few litres in volume. The cost of acquiring pure raw materials (or of processing any impurities which would be left in the output, if necessary) would be a factor.

posted about 5 years ago

Stephen‭

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