This problem is being overcome by bombarding uranium and plutonium with very intense streams of neutrons in reactors such as the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

In the mid-1970s this reactor was producing several milligrams per year of berkelium, californium, and einsteinium, and small amounts of fermium. In addition, nuclear explosions, which release very high neutron fluxes, can be designed specifically to encourage the instantaneous production of the heavy elements einsteinium and fermium.

Once sufficient quantities of the heavy elements are available, it should be possible to use isotopes such as plutonium-238 and curium-244 as extremely compact and dependable, although somewhat expensive, sources of power, with the radioactive-decay heat converted directly to electricity by thermoelectric devices.

Other transuranium isotopes such as americium-241 and californium-252 have medical and industrial uses.

Heavier Transuranium Elements
The search for still heavier elements continues. Many such superheavy elements, however, will have such short half-lives that positive identification will likely be very difficult. Theoretical studies suggest that the hypothetical superheavy element with atomic number 114 and a number of neighboring elements may have comparatively stable nuclear arrangements. Producing such heavy nuclei will require accelerating much heavier ions than have been accelerated to date.