Change one element into another using a fission reactor is a fact. Nuclear transmutation inside a fission reactor produces some really valuable elements.
For instance, “In 1972, Russian scientists found that the lead shielding of an experimental nuclear reactor near Lake Baikal in Siberia had unexpectedly turned to gold!
Unfortunately such gold is likely to be radioactive, and would decay back to stable lead, whilst releasing dangerous radiation.
A possible route to gold would be from mercury. If mercury of its various naturally occurring isotopes could be made to capture neutrons, the resulting nuclear decay chains would eventually yield gold-197, the most common naturally occurring gold isotope, and perfectly stable.
The neutrons used in this process would need to have an energy of at least 9 MeV in order for a complete transmutation of the mercury to occur. These energies are well within the capabilities of nuclear reactors.” ( http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2002/crabb/modern.html ).
One way to avoid the transmuted elements from being radioactive is to use a LENR reactor:
Analyses of the nickel powder used in Rossi’s energy catalyzer show that a large amount of copper is formed.
“For copper to be formed out of nickel, the nucleus of nickel has to capture a proton…Both measurements show that the pure nickel powder contains mainly nickel, and the used powder is different in that several elements are present, mainly 10 percent copper and 11 percent iron. The isotopic analysis through ICP-MS doesn’t show any deviation from the natural isotopic composition of nickel and copper.” ( http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/energi_miljo/energi/article3144827.ece )
Sorry to subject you to this physics lesson, but it is necessary to proceed:
“Atoms are comprised of negatively charged electrons whirling around a relatively small nucleus of neutrons and positively charged protons. Protons have a mass 1836 times the mass of electrons. A neutron is a combination of an electron and a proton with zero net electrostatic charge. An atom’s number of protons and its equal number of electrons determine its type of element. Only when a positive ion (such as a proton or nucleus of a helium atom) penetrates an atom’s nucleus does the atomic nucleus become another element (or another isotope of the same element) or becomes unstable and splits (fissions) into two or more elements.” ( http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/2010/02/low-energy-nuclear-transmutationl.html ).
In other words, an element becomes another element when neutrons bombard it. Inside a fission reactor, it comes out radioactive, but inside a LENR reactor, in comes out non-radioactive. This is what happens inside a LENR reactor:
“A tiny amount of hydrogen protons are converted into neutrons. These newly produced neutrons are soon captured by hydrogen ions or other atoms in a metallic (e.g. nickel) lattice near to where the hydrogen ions were converted to neutrons. The captured neutrons generate heat because the new atoms that are one neutron heavier shed excess binding energy as heat to the lattice…” ( http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/New-LENR-Machine-is-the-Best-Yet.html )
This bears repeating: hydrogen is consumed by emitting neutrons (remember, a neutron is a proton and an electron). Everything near is bombarded by these neutrons. Some is absorbed by the remaining hydrogen, and some is absorbed by nearby nickel atoms, and some could be absorbed by any element we choose to place nearby, transmuting it into a much more valuable element.
That was the science, but this is the analysis: LENR can easily be used for transmutation. This means that there is very little lead up time before we are going to see the market flooded with rare earth minerals and other valuable elements like platinum or gold.
The real gem is that this rather simple application of a LENR reactor doesn’t need the normal years of certification and commercialization – companies are just going to be creating tons of valuable minerals and putting them on the market! Wow – every LENR company can have an additional revenue stream.