ABSTRACT

And in this also (pursues Eleutherius) methinks both you and the chymists may easily agree, that the surest way is to learn by particular experiments, what differing parts particular bodies do consist of, and by what wayes (either actual or potential fire) they may best and most conveniently be separated, as without relying too much upon the fire alone, for the resolving of bodies, so without fruitlessly contending to force them into more elements than nature made them up of, or strip the severed principles so naked, as by making them exquisitely elementary to make them almost useless. ROBERT BOYLE (1661) The Sceptical Chymist Carbonaceous chondrites contain approximately 10^-11cc per gram of excess fission xenon, most of which is released from the meteorites at temperatures 1, 200 to 1, 400°C. It appears to be the xenon from the decay of ²⁴⁴Pu, but its concentration is at least several times the amount calculated from the uranium content of the meteorites. The so-called Renazzo-type fission xenon, which is released at temperatures 600 to 1, 000°C, can be shown to be non-fissiogenic. While the Renazzo-type fission xenon can be enriched by treating the meteorites with acids, the ²⁴⁴Pu fission xenon component becomes depleted in the residual mineral fractions.