The WiZard is In - 1-5-2011 at 08:33
Extracted from :—
New Scientist
27 April 2011
By Kat Austen
Eventually, Acord quit fighting the establishment. Determined to
realise a sculpture that embodied the concept of transmutation, he
resorted to more accessible means. He began by extracting the
radioactive metal americium-241 from smoke detectors. By
combining this with emeralds, a source of beryllium, he generated
fast neutrons, which he said he slowed down using beeswax. He
then began a breeder reaction in uranium-238 - extracted from
the enamel of bright orange* 1930s crockery known as Fiestaware -
to yield plutonium-239. Last year, Acord announced that he had
the plutonium and was preparing a sculpture to contain it.
That sculpture would have been concept heavy and plutonium light.
According to Mark Ramsey, radiation protection adviser at
Imperial when Acord was an artist in residence in 1997, "although
Acord's system had all the component parts, the amount of
neutrons produced by that method would be impractical".
* [Fiestaware was also red.]
http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/consumer%20products/fiest...
James Acord obit. numerous Google hits.