The previous discussion left off with us getting from Ni58 to Cu63 by way of beta decay. Beta decay of the type that allows neutrons to turn into protons, giving off electrons and neutrinos. But that doesn't explain where the additional mass comes from. You have to add mass to get from atomic weight 58 to atomic weight 63. That means at least 5 particles with the mass of a proton and /or neutron. You need at least one proton, and 4 neutrons. Just adding one proton will give us copper. Let's say you bombard nickel with neutrons until you get ni 64, then just one beta decay would yield cu64. But that means it has to lose a neutron to get back to cu 63.
That leaves a problem with beta decay. So, I looked up beta decay in this fashion with respect to Nickel and Copper. There's some discussion about that.
More speculation: Looks like you can get to Ni62 and then add a proton giving Cu63. That means adding 4 neutrons to Nickel then adding a proton. That will yield the correct weight.
All this discussion gets rather deep. As you will know, I am not trained in this. But I am commenting upon entries in the Wikipedia. Presumably, these entries are correct and I am understanding them correctly.
Going back to the NextBigFuture post on this yields additional information. The mechanism is explained here.
The mechanism thus explained leads to comments which include comments from Rossi. There are over 100 comments. Plenty to read over. I'll leave that to the next post.
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