From: "Rich Gauszka" 


"Adam" <""4thwormcastfromthemolehill\"{at}the
field.near the bridge"> wrote in message
news:45677e99{at}w3.nls.net...
> Rich Gauszka wrote:
>> He also had a nice dose of Polonium 210
>>
>> http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13553599,00.html
>>
>
> Interesting choice.
>
> Not the easiest stuff to get in a pure & measured form (too much & the
> death is too fast to allow the "tourist" to "finish his
sightseeing tour
> of London" & return home, too little & survival is a very real
> possibility.).
>
>
>
> Adam

Not like it's mass produced either - only 100 grams a year plus needs a
high-level nuclear lab to produce - sort of narrows down the field

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/24/uk.spy.polonium.ap/
Polonium is so exceedingly rare that only about 100 grams is believed to be
produced each year, said Dr. Mike Keir, a radiation protection adviser at
Royal Victoria Infirmary.

"Only a very, very small amount of this would need to be ingested to
kill," Keir said. "Unless you can remove the material, there's
very little you can do except treat the symptoms."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/world/europe/24cnd-isotope.html

If substantial amounts of polonium 210 were used to poison Alexander
Litvinenko, the former Russian spy who died Thursday, whoever did it
presumably had access to a high-level nuclear laboratory and put himself at
some risk carrying out the assassination, experts said today.

Polonium 210 is highly radioactive and very toxic. By weight, it is about
250 million times as toxic as cyanide, so a particle smaller than a dust
mote could be fatal. It would also, presumably, be too small to taste.

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