AR: (APA) Alchemical Fusion

Alchemy: Additive Production
Alchemy is a progenitor of modern chemistry – and mundane chemistry was eventually able to perform alchemy, creating elements like Plutonium from scratch. Arcane alchemy returns to its roots, but with no loss of mundane explosive capacity. The production of one element to another is called "fission" and "fusion" not simply as physics descriptions, but as a nod that magic is performing those functions at a quantum level.

Additive Production is alchemical fusion, combining lighter elements into heavier elements. Like Reductive Production; it the magical ability to find elements that are plentiful and provide a source for elements that are scarce. More forgiving of impurities but less forgiving on containment, additive production can combine multiple elements into a single-weight element, or combine one element into another.

The Flexibility of Alchemy
In both fission and fusion alchemy, there are increasingly sophisticated methods for creating the transformation desired. The simplest modes use the biggest brute-force magic and has the highest chance for catastrophic accidents.

Increasing the knowledge of mundane chemistry and nuclear science allows refining the arcane approach, with more efficient and safer forms of elemental conversion.

A great deal of the preparation in these routines is creating a cast that will loop int the containment itself, ensuring the transformation magic never exceeds the containment. If they're doing it right, it will be efficient enough that the transformation would be undetectable to outside observers (for instance, those with neutron detectors). The less efficient containment results in more leakage. The heavier the transformation, the more containment is required – and a failure of containment will be catastrophic.

Note: it is possible to reach "gold" via additive alchemy, just as the original quest was to reach it via reductive alchemy.

Also, just as reductive alchemy can be weaponized, so can additive alchemy.

Skill levels
 * 10: Atomic analysis
 * 15: Basic containment
 * 20: light-element transformation
 * 25: Single-stage transformation, at user-selected step up level
 * 35: Lower containment needs
 * 45: Increased impurity tolerance
 * 55: Non-explosive fault tolerance
 * 65: Single-cast, multi-stage step downs
 * 75: Zero-containment targeted transformation