 Theoretical estimation of the alpha decay half @-@ lives of the isotopes of the flerovium supports the experimental data . The fission @-@ survived isotope 298Fl , long expected to be doubly magic , is predicted to have alpha decay half @-@ life around 17 days . The direct synthesis of the nucleus 298Fl by a fusion – evaporation pathway is currently impossible since no known combination of target and stable projectile can provide 184 neutrons in the compound nucleus , and radioactive projectiles such as calcium @-@ 50 ( half @-@ life fourteen seconds ) cannot yet be used in the needed quantity and intensity . Currently , one possibility for the synthesis of the expected long @-@ lived nuclei of copernicium ( 291Cn and 293Cn ) and flerovium near the middle of the island include using even heavier targets such as curium @-@ 250 , berkelium @-@ 249 , californium @-@ 251 , and einsteinium @-@ 254 , that when fused with calcium @-@ 48 would produce nuclei such as 291Uup and 291Fl ( as decay products of 299Uue , 295Uus , and 295Lv ) , with just enough neutrons to alpha decay to nuclides close enough to the centre of the island to possibly undergo electron capture and move inwards to the centre , though the cross sections would be small and little is yet known about the decay properties of superheavy nuclides near the beta stability line . This may be the best hope currently to synthesize nuclei on the island of stability , but it is speculative and may or may not work in practice . Another possibility is to use controlled nuclear explosions to achieve the high neutron flux necessary to create macroscopic amounts of such isotopes . This would mimic the r @-@ process in which the actinides were first produced in nature and the gap of instability after polonium bypassed , as it would bypass the gaps of instability at 258 – 260Fm and at mass number 275 ( atomic numbers 104 to 108 ) . 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 . 
