 Other possibilities to synthesize nuclei on the island of stability include quasifission ( partial fusion followed by fission ) of a massive nucleus . Such nuclei tend to fission , expelling doubly magic or nearly doubly magic fragments such as calcium @-@ 40 , tin @-@ 132 , lead @-@ 208 , or bismuth @-@ 209 . Recently it has been shown that the multi @-@ nucleon transfer reactions in collisions of actinide nuclei ( such as uranium and curium ) might be used to synthesize the neutron @-@ rich superheavy nuclei located at the island of stability , although formation of the lighter elements nobelium or seaborgium is more favored . One last possibility to synthesize isotopes near the island is to use controlled nuclear explosions to create a neutron flux high enough to bypass the gaps of instability at 258 – 260Fm and at mass number 275 ( atomic numbers 104 to 108 ) , mimicking the r @-@ process in which the actinides were first produced in nature and the gap of instability around radon bypassed . Some such isotopes ( especially 291Cn and 293Cn ) may even have been synthesized in nature , but would have decayed away far too quickly ( with half @-@ lives of only thousands of years ) and be produced in far too small quantities ( about 10 − 12 the abundance of lead ) to be detectable as primordial nuclides today outside cosmic rays . 
