Japanese Research Institute Recognized as Creator of 113rd Element

Scientists at Japan’s RIKEN research institution have been recognized as creators of the 113th element on the periodic table, giving the country naming rights, local media cited officials as saying Thursday.

TOKYO (Sputnik) – The discovery of the 113th atomic element known as ununtrium was confirmed in 2012 after first being detected in 2004-05. A group of Russian-US scientists have made the discovery in the city of Dubna north of Moscow in February 2014, but the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) deemed the evidence insufficient.

The announcement was attributed by the Kyodo news service to Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Ununtrium is expected to be renamed "Japonium" as Japan’s first independently discovered element.

Elements above the atomic number 92, Uranium, do not occur naturally and are created synthetically.