Turning mercury into gold? Nuclear reactors may revive ancient dream of alchemy

Interesting Engineering ^ | July 24, 2025 | Abhishek Bhardwaj

[Red Badger]

The company claims it has cracked a scalable method to make stable gold from mercury.

Ever since the discovery of alchemy, or since humans thought gold was a precious object, a worldwide quest to turn common elements into the yellow metal has been ongoing.

Folklore and fables sing praises of humans who went on this quest and those who received such blessings. No such claims have yet stood the test of science, and this could change quite soon.

An engineering firm from the United States – Marathon Fusion – has claimed that making gold from mercury is possible, and they state that nuclear fusion will play a key role in the process.

The Silicon Valley-based company’s founders claimed in a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper.

In the paper, the authors say they have found a “new scalable method to synthesize stable gold from the abundant mercury isotope using reactions in a specialized neutron multiplier layer of a fusion blanket.”

The paper discusses high-energy neutrons produced in nuclear fusion reactors to transmute mercury into gold.

Turning mercury into gold

The process involves bombarding an isotope of mercury-198 with neutrons inside a fusion reactor. This would result in a new isotope, mercury-197, which is less stable and will decay into stable gold-197 within a few days. The naturally occurring form of the yellow metal is gold-197.

The majority of the nuclear fusion system, including tokamaks, relies on fusing deuterium and tritium- heavier forms of hydrogen. This reaction results in the production of helium, high-speed neutrons, and a vast amount of energy.

In a normal cycle, the neutrons are stored in a breeding blanket, which is designed to help in future fuel cycles. A breeding blanket is a critical component which surrounds the plasma and helps it achieve tritium self-sufficiency by breeding tritium fuel from lithium.

Marathon Fusion’s trick is adding a bit of mercury inside the breeding blanket. The mercury-198, a stable isotope, will convert into mercury-197 and turn into gold.

Making nuclear fusion a lucrative energy-generating activity As per the estimates made by the company’s founders, one gigawatt of fusion electricity could help make up to 11,023 pounds (5,000 kg) of gold annually. One gigawatt is the average output of a large nuclear plant, and this could lead to over $550 million worth of gold per year per GW of fusion energy, as per a report by ZME Science.

The process, if it sees the light of the day, could almost double the revenue of a nuclear fusion power plant. Moreover, as per the claims that money could be made without losing the energy output or any drop in tritium production.

The authors say that because of how valuable gold is in the markets, “this approach can subsidize the deployment of terawatts of fusion power without saturation.”

They also compared the neutrons produced in nuclear fusion and fission reactions. They concluded that “fusion is uniquely capable of providing large quantities of high-energy neutrons useful for driving new and valuable transmutation pathways.”

The paper also calls for developing a two-layer fusion blanket composed of an “inner blanket” and “outer blanket”, where the two layers have different working fluids selected based on the different neutron energy spectra in each layer.

The inner blanket will be designed to maximize the generation of gold.

The paper Scalable Chrysopoeia via (n, 2n) Reactions Driven by Deuterium-Tritium Fusion Neutrons can be accessed here.

Abstract

A scalable approach for chrysopoeia—the transmutation of base metals into gold—has been pursued for millennia. While there have been small-scale demonstrations in particle accelerators and proposals involving thermal neutron capture, no economically attractive approach has yet been identified. We show a new scalable method to synthesize stable gold (197Au) from the abundant mercury isotope 198Hg using (n, 2n) reactions in a specialized neutron multiplier layer of a fusion blanket. Reactions are driven by fast 14 MeV neutrons provided by a deuterium-tritium fusion plasma, which are uniquely capable of enabling the desired reaction pathway at scale. Crucially, the scheme identified here does not negatively impact electricity production and is also compatible with the challenging tritium breeding requirements of fusion power plant design because (n, 2n) reactions of 198Hg drive transmutation and neutron multiplication. Using neutronics simulations, we demonstrate a tokamak with a blanket configuration that can produce 197Au at a rate of about 2 t/GWth/yr. Implementing this concept allows fusion power plants to double the revenue generated by the system, dramatically enhancing the economic viability of fusion energy.

[Nateman]

...First one needs a bit of Philosophers Stone

In addition to turning Lead into Gold Alchemists believed that it could be used to make an elixir of life which made possible rejuvenation and immortality. America discovered what that substance really was: liberty. For example: America turned Silicon into gold thru semiconductors. America perfected open heart surgery. America even had its own Alchemist. He created elements that never existed in Earth before! His name was Glenn Seaborg and that is his face in the bottom row of the faces of the men who discovered the elements.

[Sirius Lee]

Well, first you need a philostpher.

” How many yez got, say yez got quite a few Just sittin' around there with nothin' to do? Well, I just called yez up 'cause I wanted to see A philostopher be of assistance to me”

[Nateman]

My philosopher of choice is Ayn Rand. Her defense of reason and capitalism has sold a lot of books.

[fso301]

First, Get a Nuclear Fusion Reactor..

Just another 15 years.

[Rockingham]

Amazing.

[Axenolith]

WOW! We could make gold cheaply enough eventually to use it to make pennies! LOL

[TexasGator]

Don’t make up posts. Some might actually believe yo.

[JonPreston]

🍈