In January 2010 , scientists at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions announced internally that they had detected the decay of a new element with atomic number 117 via two decay chains : one of an odd-odd isotope undergoing 6 alpha decays before spontaneous fission , and one an odd-even isotope undergoing 3 alpha decays before fission .
In January 2010 , the scientists at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions announced within the laboratory that they had succeeded in finding the decay of a new element with atomic number 117 through two decay chains of an odd-odd isotope ( that does 6 alpha decays before doing a spontaneous ( sudden ) fission ) and one decay chain of an odd-even isotope ( that does 3 alpha decays before fission ) .