Iceberg: Celtinium-279 and more

pg 109

"The probe operated by briefly exposing the metallic elements to neutrons given off by a laboratory-produced element called celtinium-279."

 Celtinium is an element invented by Cussler.

"When activated by the neutrons, the elements on the ocean's bottom gave off gamma rays."

Gamma radiation, also known as gamma rays or hyphenated as gamma-rays and denoted as γ, is electromagnetic radiation of high frequency and therefore high energy. Gamma rays are ionizing radiation and are thus biologically hazardous. They are classically produced by the decay from high energy states of atomic nuclei (gamma decay), but are also created by other processes. Paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered gamma radiation in 1900, while studying radiation emitted from radium during its gamma decay. Villard's radiation was named "gamma rays" by Ernest Rutherford in 1903.
Natural sources of gamma rays on Earth include gamma decay from naturally occurring radioisotopes, and secondary radiation from atmospheric interactions with cosmic ray particles. Rare terrestrial natural sources produce gamma rays that are not of a nuclear origin, such as lightning strikes and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. Gamma rays are produced by a number of astronomical processes in which very high-energy electrons are produced, that in turn cause secondary gamma rays by the mechanisms of bremsstrahlung, inverse Compton scattering and synchrotron radiation. A large fraction of such astronomical gamma rays are screened by Earth's atmosphere and must be detected by spacecraft.
Gamma rays typically have frequencies above 10 exahertz (or >10¹⁹ Hz), and therefore have energies above 100 keV and wavelengths less than 10 picometers (less than the diameter of an atom). However, this is not a hard and fast definition, but rather only a rule-of-thumb description for natural processes. Gamma rays from radioactive decay are defined as gamma rays no matter what their energy, so that there is no lower limit to gamma energy derived from radioactive decay. Gamma decay commonly produces energies of a few hundred keV, and almost always less than 10 MeV. In astronomy, gamma rays are defined by their energy, and no production process need be specified. The energies of gamma rays from astronomical sources range over 10 TeV, at a level far too large to result from radioactive decay. A notable example is extremely powerful bursts of high-energy radiation normally referred to as long duration gamma-ray bursts, which produce gamma rays by a mechanism not compatible with radioactive decay. These bursts of gamma rays, thought to be due to the collapse of stars called hypernovas, are the most powerful events so far discovered in the cosmos.

"I take it that was a white lie?"
From Wiki Answers;

There is no special origin or etymology to the term "little white lie." The word "white" has long been synonomous with "good," "pure," and "intending no harm." For example, "white magic" simply means "good magic" or "magic not intended to harm" (as opposed to "black magic" which is.) Same applies to "white lie" which is a lie told for a good reason, with no intent to harm any one.

Only very recently has the term been used to suggest some racial connotation. For example, a headline might read "The Little White Lie -- Cop Lies on Stand in O.J. Case." However, that usage is only clever word play and has nothing to do with the true origin or meaning of "white lie."