What is the price of polonium-210?
The Web is abuzz with nuclear news these days. “The radioactive material that killed a former Russian spy in Britain can be bought on the Internet for $69.” That was InformationWeek’s lead. And it’s been picked up all over the place.
How do I get polonium-210?
Polonium-210 can either be extracted from rocks containing radioactive uranium or separated chemically from the substance radium-226. Production of polonium from radium-226 would need sophisticated lab facilities because the latter substance produces dangerous levels of penetrating radiation.
How common is polonium-210?
Only about one in a 100,000 decays results in the emission of a gamma ray. Alpha spectroscopy is the best method of measuring this isotope. Being produced during the decay of naturally occurring uranium-238, polonium-210 is widely distributed in small amounts in the earth’s crust.
Can you survive polonium?
If ingested, it is lethal in extremely small doses. A minuscule amount of the silver powder is sufficient to kill. British radiation experts say once polonium-210 enters the bloodstream, its deadly effects are nearly impossible to stop.
What happens if you touch polonium?
Polonium is a metal found in uranium ore whose isotope polonium-210 is highly radioactive, emitting tiny positively charged alpha particles. So long as polonium is kept out of the human body, it poses little danger because the alpha particles travel no more than a few centimeters and cannot pass through skin.
How is polonium used today?
Polonium (Po) is a very rare and highly volatile radioactive metal. In commercial applications, polonium is occasionally used to remove static electricity in machinery or dust from photographic film. It can also be used as a lightweight heat source for thermoelectric power in space satellites.
How much polonium 210 is in a cigarette?
The results of this work indicate that the average (range) activity concentration of (210)Po in cigarette tobacco was 16.6 (9.7-22.5) mBq/cigarette.
Can polonium poisoning be cured?
The alpha particles emitted from the decaying substance get absorbed in the body, which is what causes harm. Death may come in a matter of days, sometimes weeks. There is no cure for severe radiation poisoning, Dallas said.
What color is polonium?
Polonium is a radioactive, extremely rare semi-metal. It is reactive, silvery-gray, it dissolves in dilute acids, but it is only slightly soluble in alkalis.
What happens if you swallow plutonium?
A small amount of the plutonium you swallow (much less than 1%) will enter other parts of your body (mainly your bones and liver). If plutonium gets onto your healthy skin, very little, if any, plutonium will enter your body. More plutonium will enter your body if gets onto injured skin, such as a cut or burn.
Where can I find polonium 210 on the Internet?
United Nuclear Scientific Supplies distributes radio-isotopes over the Internet, including polonium-210.
How long does polonium 210 stay in the body?
Polonium-210 does not stick around for very long. It has a half-life of 138 days, which means its radioactivity will be reduced by 50 per cent in that time. According to one environmental radiochemist, that suggests the dose that killed Mr. Litvinenko was produced recently.
Who was the first person to be poisoned with polonium 210?
What’s new is that Mr. Litvinenko appears to be the first person who has ever been deliberately poisoned with the it. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Peter Zimmerman, a physicist at King’s College London, described the choice of polonium-210, the isotope that killed Mr. Litvinenko, as the result of “perverse genius.”
How much polonium does Russia produce a month?
Sergei Kiriyneko, head of Russia’s state atomic energy agency Rosatom, told the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta yesterday that Russia produces about eight grams of polonium a month but that it is strictly controlled. Polonium-210 does not stick around for very long.