I'm just teasing. :O)
Posted on 11/30/2006 9:49:00 AM PST by jdm
The radioactive poison used to kill the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko is being offered for sale over the internet for less than £40.
A company in the US claims to supply polonium-210 to anyone for just $69 plus postage and packing. A three-pack set of “alpha, beta, gamma” radioactive isotopes also includes polonium-210.
United Nuclear, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, tells purchasers: “If you’re looking for clean, accurate, certified radiation sources, here they are. . . All isotopes are produced fresh in a nuclear reactor and shipped directly to you.”
The company says that it has supplied radioactive materials to “the science hobbyist”, businesses, government bodies and teachers since 1998. “We specialise in small orders.” United Nuclear assures customers that they run no risk of being tipped off to the US Department for Homeland Security.
“Chemical suppliers routinely forward customers’ names, along with their purchases, to government officials/Homeland Security officials etc. We do not — and never will. We respect your privacy and will fight for it,” the company’s website states.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico describes polonium-210 as 250 billion times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide. The apparent availability of polonium-210 intensifies the problems facing Scotland Yard detectives in establishing the source of the poison that killed Mr Litvinenko in London last week.
Many commentators have asserted that the material could only have come from a state-controlled nuclear facility, leading critics of President Putin to point the finger at Russia’s secret service.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia’s atomic energy agency, has revealed that it sells 8g of polonium-210 each month to American companies for “scientific purposes”.
United Nuclear says it accepts orders only through its online service and that materials can be sent only to addresses in the US. But it is not difficult to arrange for a delivery in the US to be forwarded to another country.
I'm just teasing. :O)
I doubt Putin bought his on the net.
Huh? How can you package Gamma? Alpha and Beta are particles, Gamma is a wave...
Bonus buy: up-to-date nuclear secrets on freshly formatted hard disk drives!
And how many of these would you have to buy and dissolve in acid before you would have enough to extract a lethal dose?
LOL
From United Nuclears website...
A SPECIAL NOTICE ABOUT POLONIUM-210
With the recent news of Polonium-210 being used as a poison, a good deal of incorrect information has been passed around (primarily by the media) concerning the Polonium isotope and radioactive materials in general. It's important to get the facts correct. The general public is quite ignorant when it comes to knowledge about radioactive materials and radiation in general.
The amount of Plonium-210, as well as any of the isotopes we sell is an 'exempt quantity' amount. These quantities of radioactive material are not hazardous - this is why they are permitted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to be sold to the general public without any sort of license.
Although we do sell these isotopes, distributors such as United Nuclear Scientific Supplies (and just about any isotope distributor) do not actually stock them.
All isotopes are made to order at an NRC licensed reactor in Oak Ridge Tennessee. When the isotope is made, it is shipped directly to the customer from the reactor to insure the longest possible half-life.
The exempt quantity amount of Polonium-210, or any of the radioactive isotopes sold is so small that they are essentially invisible to the human eye. In the case of needle sources, the radioactive material is electroplated on the inside of the eye of a needle.
You would need about 15,000 of our Polonium-210 needle sources at a total cost of about $1 million - to have a toxic amount.
In comparison, Amercium-241 is a similar toxic Alpha radiation emitter. Instead of a half life of 138 days like Polonium-210 has, it has a half life of over 450 years. It is far more toxic - and there is 10 times more than the 'exempt quantity' amount in every smoke detector in your home.
If you really wanted to poison someone, you would of course have to come up with a way to remove the invisible amount of material from the exempt sources - which is just about physically impossible and combine them together. Of course you would also need that 15,000 exempt sources.
In addition, there are dozens of other far more toxic materials, such as Ricin and Abrin, both of which can easily be made, and are also undetectable as a poison and untraceable.
Although it obviously works, Polonium-210 is a poor choice for a poison.
Another point to keep in mind is that an order for 15,000 sources would look a tad suspicious, considering we sell about 1 or 2 sources every 3 months.
Make sure you are truly knowledgeable about a subject before you start repeating and spreading potentially incorrect information related to it.
In case anyone is interested, here's a quote from their website http://www.unitednuclear.com/ :
A SPECIAL NOTICE ABOUT POLONIUM-210
With the recent news of Polonium-210 being used as a poison, a good deal of incorrect information has been passed around (primarily by the media) concerning the Polonium isotope and radioactive materials in general. It's important to get the facts correct. The general public is quite ignorant when it comes to knowledge about radioactive materials and radiation in general.
The amount of Plonium-210, as well as any of the isotopes we sell is an 'exempt quantity' amount. These quantities of radioactive material are not hazardous - this is why they are permitted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to be sold to the general public without any sort of license.
Although we do sell these isotopes, distributors such as United Nuclear Scientific Supplies (and just about any isotope distributor) do not actually stock them.
All isotopes are made to order at an NRC licensed reactor in Oak Ridge Tennessee. When the isotope is made, it is shipped directly to the customer from the reactor to insure the longest possible half-life.
The exempt quantity amount of Polonium-210, or any of the radioactive isotopes sold is so small that they are essentially invisible to the human eye.
In the case of needle sources, the radioactive material is electroplated on the inside of the eye of a needle.
You would need about 15,000 of our Polonium-210 needle sources at a total cost of about $1 million - to have a toxic amount.
In comparison, Amercium-241 is a similar toxic Alpha radiation emitter.
Instead of a half life of 138 days like Polonium-210 has, it has a half life of over 450 years. It is far more toxic - and there is 10 times more than the 'exempt quantity' amount in every smoke detector in your home.
If you really wanted to poison someone, you would of course have to come up with a way to remove the invisible amount of material from the exempt sources - which is just about physically impossible and combine them together. Of course you would also need that 15,000 exempt sources.
In addition, there are dozens of other far more toxic materials, such as Ricin and Abrin, both of which can easily be made, and are also undetectable as a poison and untraceable.
Although it obviously works, Polonium-210 is a poor choice for a poison.
Another point to keep in mind is that an order for 15,000 sources would look a tad
suspicious, considering we sell about 1 or 2 sources every 3 months.
Make sure you are truly knowledgeable about a subject before you start repeating and spreading potentially incorrect information related to it."
http://www.unitednuclear.com/
Packaging a gamma emitter, like 60Co, is what they are talking about. Same as the beta and alpha emitters.
(I know plutonium isn't polonium, but the point is the same; alarmism sells but seldom enlightens.)
Thanks for the informative post.
Thank you for the additional info.
Talk about your atomic ... er, never mind.
'Gamma is a wave...' and if it talks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks non-sense like a duck...why, it must be Barbara Streisand.
Everything is a wave in the way that a gamma is a wave. Read some physics rather than ... the NYT.
A beta is an electron, maybe you can get your brain around an electron's wave-like nature.
Either we are equal or we are not. Good people ought to be armed where they will, with wits and guns. NRA KMA
Gotta be Alpha, Beta, and Gamma emitters.
Hmmm. Well, I've got a a fair number of sources right here in my desk that are beta-only. 36Cl, gamma abundance = 0.0. 32P, no gamma emissions according to the Chart of the Nuclides. Ditto for 14C, 3H, et al. Not everything that decays gives off gammas.
Thanks for the info...Just pissed of my, former Navy, Radiation Instructor. I quit the Nuke plants, airplanes are more enjoyable to work on.
A nuclear powered aircraft (or spacecraft) would be quite the sweet treat. The best of both worlds...
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