[Borek]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120926112719.htm

The most unambiguous data to date on the elusive 113^th atomic element has been obtained by researchers at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-based Science (RNC). A chain of six consecutive alpha decays, produced in experiments at the RIKEN Radioisotope Beam Factory (RIBF), conclusively identifies the element through connections to well-known daughter nuclides.

[Dan1195]

The confirmation is that they were able to observe a decay chain all the way to ²⁵⁸Md. The previous two chains ended in fission (Likely the EC daughter of ²⁶²Db, ²⁵⁸Rf). The cross-section for this reaction is very low, worse than the cross-sections in the "Hot Fusion" ⁴⁸Ca reactions used to find elements 114-118. I think it took them over a year of cumulative beam time just to get 3 atoms. Can't imagine they will go back to this reaction again now that they have the confirmation.

In other news, New presentation from TASCA 12 Workshop at GSI w/addtional decay chains of 117. Alpha decay of ²⁸¹Rg appears to have finally been observed. ~5-10% alpha branching of this nucleus. Daughter ²⁷⁷Mt has SF lifetime of 10 ms. This is very similar to the small observed alpha branching of ²⁸¹Ds and the SF lifetime of ²⁷⁷Hs.

There was also a case where the ⁴⁸Ca beam reacted with the beta decay daughter of ²⁴⁹Bk->²⁴⁹Cf in the target (~25% of the Bk had decayed at this point in the experiment) to produce a ²⁹⁴118 chain.