Element Facts
SYMBOL
Mt
ATOMIC NO.
109
ATOMIC WEIGHT
278
CATEGORY
Transition Metal
PERIOD
Period 7
GROUP
Group 9
Background
Meitnerium was first synthesised in 1982 at GSI Darmstadt by Peter Armbruster, Gottfried Münzenberg, and colleagues, by bombarding bismuth-209 with iron-58 ions. Named in 1997 after Lise Meitner, the Austrian-Swedish physicist who co-discovered nuclear fission alongside Otto Hahn in 1938 and made fundamental contributions to nuclear physics — one of the few elements named after a woman. Meitner was controversially excluded from the Nobel Prize awarded to Hahn alone for the fission discovery.
Industrial Uses
Meitnerium has no practical applications. Only about 10 atoms have ever been confirmed produced. It is studied purely in the context of nuclear physics theory.
Scrap Viability
Why QuickStop Metals doesn’t buy Meitnerium:
Meitnerium’s most stable isotope has a half-life of approximately 7.6 seconds. It exists for only seconds as individual atoms in particle accelerators. No commercial application or scrap trade is conceivable.
What It's Worth
No commercial market. Produced one atom at a time in particle accelerators. The production cost per atom is effectively incalculable as a practical quantity.