[ RadSafe ] RE: 15000 units of Po210
Bernard L. Cohen
blc+ at pitt.edu
Wed Dec 20 09:59:55 CST 2006
Isn't the short half life (138 days) a real pain in a non-industrial
application like stereos?
welch at jlab.org wrote:
>I haven't seen the ones for stereos, but they do make hand-held brushes
>used in photography for cleaning film, and there are industrial-type units
>used in manufacturing.
>
>
>
>>Keith,
>>
>>Almost makes you feel sorry for those unfortunate murderers who've wasted
>>all that money on bullets and knives when they could have just pulled a
>>few
>>static eliminator brushes off convenient stereos and gone on a killing
>>spree. I found 1960 and 1980 models of "eliminators" on the internet --
>>are
>>they still available, or gone with the turntable?
>>
>>Ed Hiserodt
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
>>Behalf
>>Of Keith Welch
>>Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 10:10 AM
>>To: radsafe at radlab.nl
>>Subject: [ RadSafe ] RE: 15000 units of Po210
>>
>>Ten million dollars? Sheeesh. Looks like United Nuclear is part of the
>>problem. That info on their website is just bogus. You can buy 500 uCi
>>(I seem to remember a consensus that a few millicuries is lethal) static
>>eliminator sources for 20 bucks (online, with a credit card and no
>>license). And that news report is even more flaky. What a bunch of
>>hogwash. Sounds like some rag-mag trying to fan the flame of a
>>conspiracy theory. Fact is anybody with a credit card can buy enough Po
>>to kill someone with, and could likely produce the poison by simple
>>mechanical means (it wouldn't take a chemist or physicist). Yes, they'd
>>get pretty contaminated doing it, and they'd waste a lot of the Po, and
>>it might not be in the most efficient form to be absorbed, but hey, it's
>>cheap, just buy ten times more than you need. Basic precautions would
>>keep them from killing themselves in the process. My guess is
>>somewhere, someone's got a really crapped-up basement - but not for too
>>long.
>>
>>Keith Welch
>>
>>
>>
>>>Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:23:45 -0500
>>>From: Cindy Bloom <radbloom at comcast.net>
>>>Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Po-210: What is a unit?
>>>To: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
>>>Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.2.20061219092228.03561380 at mail.comcast.net>
>>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed
>>>
>>>The United Nuclear's website supports Jim's conjecture.
>>>
>>>http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm
>>>
>>>Cindy
>>>
>>>At 09:01 AM 12/19/2006 -0500, Jim Hardeman wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>Ivor --
>>>>>
>>>>>Just guessing, but I would think that "unit" in this context means the
>>>>>amount of material present in one of the sources that United Nuclear
>>>>>offers for sale for $69 ... sort of like counting how many smoke
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>detectors
>>
>>
>>>>>you would need to make an RDD. If I remember correctly, the United
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>Nuclear
>>
>>
>>>>>sources are distributed in the US as exempt items ... meaning that
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>each
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>one (from memory) would contain ~0.1 microcurie or less of Po-210.
>>>>>
>>>>>Jim Hardeman
>>>>>Jim_Hardeman at dnr.state.ga.us
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>Ivor Surveyor <isurveyor at vianet.net.au> 12/18/2006 18:29 >>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>The following report is from the
>>>>>AUSTRALIAN. Can somebody please explain what
>>>>>is meant by a "unit of radioactivity," as quoted in the article.
>>>>>
>>>>>Russian spy's fatal dose of poison cost $13m
>>>>>Correspondents in London
>>>>>19dec06
>>>>>
>>>>>BRITISH police believe the radioactive substance
>>>>>used to kill former Russian spy Alexander
>>>>>Litvinenko cost more than $US10 million ($13 million).
>>>>>
>>>>>According to The Times, preliminary results from
>>>>>the post-mortem examination on Litvinenko's body
>>>>>have shown he was given more than 10 times the
>>>>>lethal dose of polonium-210, large quantities of
>>>>>which were found in his urine.
>>>>>
>>>>>"Only a state-sponsored organisation could obtain
>>>>>such a large amount of polonium-210 without
>>>>>raising suspicion on the international market,"
>>>>>said Alexander Goldfarb, a friend of Litvinenko.
>>>>>
>>>>>United Nuclear Scientific Supplies, based in New
>>>>>Mexico - one of the few companies allowed to sell
>>>>>polonium-210 over the internet - said it would
>>>>>take at least 15,000 units of the isotope to kill someone.
>>>>>
>>>>>With each unit costing $US69, it would have cost
>>>>>more than $US10 million to deliver Litvinenko's fatal dose.
>>>>>
>>>>>"You can't buy this much off the internet or
>>>>>steal it from a laboratory without raising an
>>>>>alarm, so the only two plausible explanations for
>>>>>the source are that it was obtained from a
>>>>>nuclear reactor or very well-connected
>>>>>black-market smugglers," an unidentified British security source said.
>>>>>
>>>>>British detectives working on the case in Moscow
>>>>>were due to return to Britain this week.
>>>>>
>>>>>Security sources said Russian officials refused
>>>>>to ask questions of Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri
>>>>>Kovtun - both of whom met Litvinenko on the day
>>>>>he fell ill - that British detectives wanted
>>>>>answered. They had not complained publicly
>>>>>because of the importance of the case to
>>>>>diplomatic relations between Britain and Russia.
>>>>>
>>>>>High-ranking Kremlin officials have mocked
>>>>>Litvinenko's boasts, after he defected to
>>>>>Britain, about his role in their security services.
>>>>>
>>>>>Minister of Defence Sergei Ivanov claimed that
>>>>>Litvinenko, far from being a top KGB spy as he
>>>>>liked to claim, was merely a prison guard.
>>>>>
>>>>>Mr Ivanov said Litvinenko had never had access to
>>>>>secret or important information and was "of such
>>>>>poor character" he was dismissed from the Russian
>>>>>security agency when it was being run by Vladimir Putin.
>>>>>
>>>>>"He was never a spy and never knew anything of
>>>>>any real value to give to any (foreign
>>>>>intelligence) service," Mr Ivanov said. "He was
>>>>>just a Russian who meant nothing to us."
>>>>>
>>>>>Referring to the letter in which Litvinenko
>>>>>accused the Kremlin of poisoning him, Mr Ivanov
>>>>>said:"We didn't care what he said and what he wrote on his deathbed."
>>>>>
>>>>>Kremlin officials again described the accusations
>>>>>of Russian involvement made by Litvinenko and his friends as
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>ludicrous.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Valentin Velichko, a colonel who is president of
>>>>>Honour and Dignity, a powerful group of KGB
>>>>>veterans, dismissed Litvinenko as "a nonentity".
>>>>>
>>>>>He said in an interview with the Rossiiskaya
>>>>>Gazeta newspaper that Litvinenko was never a
>>>>>target for Russian intelligence because he was
>>>>>not important enough to bother with.
>>>>>
>>>>>
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