Osmium 187

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@HOTMAIL.COM>]

Found the following while browsing:



"In September 1993, Lev Savenkov, a vice mayor of the city, was caught on 

the Finnish border with 8 grams of osmium-187, used to make pen points and 

electric light filaments, estimated by customs to be worth about $500,000."



Wonder if anyone can explain:

1. Why Os-187? It is only about 2 % of the stable forms (according to

http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Os/isot.html



the most important stable isotopes are Os-192 and Os-190).

2. I find a bunch of sites related to smuggling, nuclear materials etc. Here 

is one example:http://english.pravda.ru/society/2001/12/28/24690.html

While it is easy to understand why someone would like to steal it, I still 

don't get the connection with this particular isotope. Why separate it if 

there are other stable isotopes?



Comments?



Bjorn Cedervall

bcradsafers@hotmail.com  or  best3d72@yahoo.com





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