In general the late 90s are set. Berkelium (97) may as well functionally not exist at all. There's about 10 grams of Californium, there's less than a single gram of 97.
97 is the synthetic element Berkelium and only a gram has ever been made in history as its only use is for the scientific research of "hey we made an element"
Californium is the heaviest element which currently has practical applications, but it is for niche uses such as nuclear reactor start-up, to detect underground water and other applications which require a portable fast neutron source.
It’s also only certain kinds of smoke detectors that work by ionization. There’s still the mundane ones that use a laser to check how clear the air is.
96 - Curium. Does not occur naturally on earth. Small amounts are produced in nuclear reactors, which are heavily guarded and mechnically complex. Think I'm safe.
The later you were born in the 20th Century the better you have it.
The last really bad one is 1982 with lead. It's relatively easy to get your hands on lead. It's not great for making a sword but I'm sure you could make a basic spear or coat a steel rod in lead or just a big sledgehammer.
83 with Bismuth is borderline. There's Bismuth in Peptobismol but a tiny amount and throwing a bottle of anti nausea medicine at Superman isn't much of a threat. From there it's all tiny trace amounts that are a nightmare to get access to and are toxic to humans anyway.
There's the edge case of Uranium Glass which is mostly safe but that's rare stuff. I guess if you could buy the thing that kills Superman on eBay then it's not that rare in context. But I'd rather he weak to uranium than lead if I had a choice.
87 here, Francium immediately decays so I'm, fine? (Though if someone does manage to find a glowing green blue rock of Francium I and everyone else in the room would be fucked)
969
u/davidarblack 13h ago
98 - Californium.... It's radioactive so.... Nothing changed???