The element in question is Thorium 229. I have also highlighted the section that pertains to energy issues -- in this case, the possibility of engineering high-capacity batteries for long-term energy storage. Better control over isotopic states will allow us to limit or eliminate many kinds of radiation risks; although this kind work has been pursued for decades (generally involving transmutation technology), it receives very little attention. This is a new breakthrough in a different area of research.
Livermore researchers have moved one step closer to being able to turn on and off the decay of a nuclear isomer.
The protons and neutrons in a nucleus can be arranged in many ways. The arrangement with the lowest energy is called the ground state and all others are called excited states. (This is analogous to the ground and excited states of electrons in an atom except that nuclear excited states are typically thousands of times higher in energy.) Excited nuclear states eventually decay to the ground state via gamma emission or to another nucleus via particle emission. Most excited states are short-lived (e.g., billionth of a second). However, a few are long-lived (e.g., hours) and are called isomers.
Turning the decay on and off is key to using isomers as high-energy density storage systems such as batteries.
...
For years, researchers have been fascinated with this isomer because it could lead to new science and technology breakthroughs. Among them are: a quantum many-body study; a clock with unparallel precision for general relativity tests; a superb qubit (a quantum bit) for quantum computing; testing the effects of the chemical environment on nuclear decay rates.
Isomers also may serve as a battery for storing large amounts of energy.(more at
ScienceDaily)
--p!
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