Was Masurium Element

In 1988, Pieter van Assche at the Belgian nuclear research institute in Mol examined the work of Noddack, Tacke and Berg in detail [28.5]. At first he emphasized a statement in 1934 of Ida Tacke herself It is conceivable that with the irradiation of heavier nuclei with neutrons these nuclei decay into several larger fragments these fragments can turn out to be isotopes of known elements, but not neighbors of the irradiated elements. This is really a forecast of nuclear fission, discovered four years later by O. Hahn, Lise Meitner, and F. Strassman. How is it possible that this important statement from Tacke was ignored. One reason, van Assche says, was the publication in 1925 of the discovery of rhenium and masurium [28.2]. Because the masurium discovery could not be confirmed the work was seriously discredited. 

Commenting on the element discovery, van Assche notes that the element masurium had been reported only in samples containing considerable quantities of uranium while no masurium had been found in samples free from uranium. He concluded that element 43 could in fact have been present as a result of the radioactive decay of uranium. If so, Noddack, Tacke and Berg really were the discoverers of element 43. 

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