From: "Steve Ewing" 

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 14:18:44 +1200, Don Hills  wrote:

> The radioactive element itself is an almost invisible speck sealed in
> aluminium foil. Getting a bare speck in your lungs would not be a good
> thing, but the effort of collecting and de-encapsulating enough to be
> credible even as a scare weapon would be considerable.

Heh; remember this (I posted it a while back)?

http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html
=====
...David learned that a tiny amount of the radioactive isotope
americium-241 could be found in smoke detectors. he contacted
smoke-detector companies and claimed that he needed a large number for a
school project. One company sold him about a hundred broken detectors for a
dollar apiece.

Not sure where the americium was located, he wrote to an electronics firm
in Illinois. A customer-service representative wrote back to say she'd be
happy to help out with "your report." Thanks to her help, David
extracted the material. He put the americium inside a hollow block of lead
with a tiny hole pricked in one side so that alpha rays would stream out.
In front of the block he placed a sheet of aluminum, its atoms absorb alpha
rays and kick out neutrons. His neutron gun was ready...
=====

--
Steve 
http://www.qmss.com/sewing

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