Response to the report of the transfermium working group “discovery of the transfermium elements”

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Abstract

The report of the Transfermium Working Group (TWG) “Discovery of the Transfermium Elements” is riddled with errors of omission and commission. Many relevant references and much relevant data were omitted as a result of the selective use of references and data. There were only two members representing the IUPAC on the TWG (and these were not nuclear chemists) while there were seven members representing the IUPAP. Much of the experimental evidence is of a basically chemical nature and its proper evaluation would have benefited from the presence of more nuclear chemists on the TWG. Especially grievous is the rejection of the Berkeley claim to the 1955 discovery of element 101 which was based on a clear-cut chemical identification. Our most serious quarrel with the TWG report is their treatment of the discovery of element 104. It is clearly a waste of time and effort to reopen the cases of elements 102 and 103, which were discovered more than 30 years ago with the approval of the suggested names by the IUPAC according to the standards of that era.

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