[ RadSafe ] Polonium-210 poisoning

[franz.schoenhofer at chello.at]

Absurd and lacking any insight in the topic and on reality. Po-210 is produced commercially as far as I know (almost) exclusively in Russian reactors (consult Google). They have enough to spend some to the KGB. What are "old radium tubes"? Since you have neither knowledge about radiation protection or chemistry I wonder where you got the recipe for separating Po-210 from radium. Radiumsources usually are not to be found on the streets, so where do you get them from? Being a radiochemist I would not work with the necessary quantities of radium to extract the polonium obviously used in the murder of Litvinenko.

Franz



---- "Busby schrieb:
> 
> Yes. Interesting. Everyone blamed the Russians because it was said that only someone with access to a reactor could have put the poison together i.e. it was not a amateur job. But it is easy to separate Po210 from old radium tubes with nitric acid and baking soda; a kitchen job, though you'd have to be jolly careful. I think KGB would have far more sophisticated ways of killing someone.
> Chris 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at agni.phys.iit.edu on behalf of Otto G. Raabe
> Sent: Sat 9/10/2011 7:38 PM
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Polonium-210 poisoning
>  
> September 10, 2011
> 
> At London's Millenium Hotel on November 1, 2006, Alexander 
> Litvinenko, a Russian defector, was poisoned  with tea containing a 
> large amount of polonium-210. He fell ill that very day and died 
> after a long hospitalization on November 23. He told investigators 
> that he had met with two former KGB agents early on the day he fell ill.
> 
--
Franz Schoenhofer, PhD, MinRat
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