[syhprum (OP)]

If I do not want to wait for the cold fusion process to be fully developed how can I produce platinum with existing technology ?.
I know that the economics are ridiculous and the product would maybe cost 1000 times the normal price but I take it is possible using nuclear reactors and isotope extraction equipment and possibly feedstock much more valuable than platinum.   

[jeffreyH]

Take 78 protons, 78 electrons and 117 neutrons and combine them together. You could probably trap the protons and electrons in some arrangement of magnetic fields and bring them together somehow. The neutrons may be more difficult to manage.

[jeffreyH]

This may help but you have the lifetime issue with free neutrons.
http://www.nature.com/articles/47444

[syhprum (OP)]

Some short lived radioactive elements are manufactured for use as medical tracers in nuclear reactors could not Platinum be produced in a similar manner however costly this route would be.
I believe banging together neutron stars is one way but not very practicable
   

[evan_au]

how can I produce platinum? I take it is possible using nuclear reactors and isotope extraction equipment

The easiest way to get extra nucleon into a nucleus against the powerful positive electrostatic field is to fire an electrically-neutral neutron at the atom.
- Nuclear reactors are a good source of neutrons
- Start with the element "below" the one you want to create; Iridium (77 protons) is just below Platinum (78 protons)
- After absorbing the neutron, the element often becomes "neutron heavy", and the extra neutron will break down to a proton, an electron and a neutrino
- This produces the next element "above" the one you started with...
- Iridium 191 makes up 37% of natural Iridium. Hit it with a neutron, and Iridium 192 decays in 74 days to Platinum 192 (although it will also produce some Osmium 192). Platinum 192 is stable, but only makes up 0.8% of natural Platinum.
- Iridium 193 makes up 63% of natural Iridium. Hit it with a neutron, and Iridium 194 decays in 19 hours to Platinum 194. Platinum 194 is stable, and quite common in nature (33%).
- So I conclude that this is a feasible approach, assuming you had easy access to a nuclear reactor and a nuclear reprocessing plant.
- And someone analysing your platinum with a mass spectrometer would know that it was not natural.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_iridium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_platinum

A more difficult synthesis is to start with a radioactive isotope of an element 1 higher than the one you want - select an isotope which undergoes Beta capture.
- Gold is 1 element above Platinum
- Gold 195 decays in 186 days to Platinum 195, which is stable
- Gold 196 decays in 6 days to Platinum 196, which is stable (although it also produces some Mercury 196)
- The challenge here is how to produce significant quantities of neutron-poor isotopes of gold
- Again, someone analysing your platinum with a mass spectrometer would know that it was not natural.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_gold

An even more difficult synthesis is to start with a radioactive isotope of an element 2 higher than the one you want - and select an isotope that undergoes alpha particle decay.
- Mercury is 2 higher than Platinum - but it decays to Gold rather than Platinum

cold fusion process ... how can I produce platinum?

Cold fusion relies on a reaction which is naturally exothermic - you just want a way of overcoming the electrostatic repulsion and create the conditions under which this already-favorable reaction will take place.
- So Deuterium+Tritium is naturally exothermic - it just takes a temperature around 17 million degrees to overcome electrostatic repulsion to get it started (or a negative meson and a temperature under 1000C = relatively cold).
- However, nuclear fusion reactions on elements above Iron (element 26) are naturally endothermic, ie they are very unfavorable.
- So cold fusion doesn't work on elements above Iron, so clearly wont help with Platinum (element 78)
- And in practice, Cold Fusion has even proven highly resistant with Hydrogen, which has the lowest possible electrostatic repulsion.

[Bored chemist]

I seem to remember that platinum is one of the fission products from Uranium.
Any fission reactor makes it by default.

I checked- my mistake- it's the other platinum group metals
https://www.technology.matthey.com/article/14/3/88-92/