Spy-killing polonium-210 cost $25 million

UPI via Wash Times ^ | Dec 13, 2006

[jdm]

German investigators say the radioactive polonium-210 used to kill a former Russian spy in London last month would have cost $25 million on the black market.

Somebody REALLY wanted him gone.

[ClearCase_guy]

I don't think Putin got it from the Black Market. He paid wholesale prices, which is a lot cheaper, I'm sure.

[the Real fifi]

Only if you have to buy it.

[REDWOOD99]

He bought on clearance for $9.95 (million).

[Red Badger]

I knew Paul McCartney could have saved a ton of money by switching to ..........

[badbass]

I'm starting to wonder if this guy was carrying the Polonium 210 to sell to terrorists, and his plan "backfired" on him. The "death bed" conversion to Islam is rather scary.

[Dog]

Can you say smuggling.

[sbMKE]

I think I read elsewhere that Pulonium 210 doesn't aerosolize very easy due to particle weight, and is most efficiently delivered via liquid (or possibly incorporation in prepared food?).

Makes me wonder if it wouldn't be ideally suited for a foodborne "dirty bomb" attack and if that isn't what was in the works here. A truly frightening thought.

With cost now known in addition to the sloppiness of the trail left behind it seems safe to assume that this wasn't a political assassination -- a good old fashioned car bomb would have been just as discrete.

[dynoman]

I think this is baloney as little old me found places to buy it online.

[rjp2005]

Jeez that is a ton of cash for a micro-gram of gas.

[The_Reader_David]

I'm not sure about particle weight, but at room temp, a surprising percentage of it will vaporize.

The even more sinister possibility is that the polonium was being smuggled either as part of, or with the intent of making, polonium-beryllium neutron sources to refurbish the trigger mechanism on a stolen or black-market 'suit-case' nuke.

[The_Reader_David]

The online sites sell vanishingly small quantities of the stuff for people to use in cloud chambers. (I had one when I was a kid.)

$25 million/gram translates into $25/microgram, and the online sites are selling quantities measured in micrograms.

[dgallo51]

That's IF Putin was behind it. I'm not doubting for a minute Putin would do it, mind you…there's just no need to prejudge anything here…judging by the trail…it does not have the trademarks of a typical S Directorate of SVR hit, but then, we are in a new 'dirty-bomb' world. Comrade Vlad is atop of my list of suspects…it remains to be seen where the investigation leads…or dies of stonewalling…right now…it's not looking good for Team Vlad, but the fat lady hasn't even entered the ballpark.

[RobRoy]

This is beginning to remind me of Sum of All Fears - the book, not the movie. Remember the guy that got sick from the radioactive material whose sickness telegraphed that something sinister was afoot?

Maybe it's just tinfoil hat stuff, but there are some reasonable speculations to be made here.

[protest1]

...and is most efficiently delivered via liquid (or possibly incorporation in prepared food?).

I read, in the Daily Mail, that the polonium was in a cup of tea he drank at the Millennium Hotel. One of the cups has tested very high radiation readings, other crockery low readings, possibly contaminated by being washed next to the cup used to poison him.

Daily Mail article here

[colorado tanker]

I'm starting to wonder if this guy was carrying the Polonium 210 to sell to terrorists, and his plan "backfired" on him. The "death bed" conversion to Islam is rather scary.

One of the early MSM stories on this said it basically had to be ingested or put on some other path to the bloodstream.

[FLOutdoorsman]

This is a joke.

Yeah, Russia, why don't you slow poison a guy who has been embarrassing you guys for years. While he is dying, he gets to blab to the media. Also, he gets Martyred.

I have more faith with the Commies killing people in a different form. Or, maybe this is payback from the whole Russian 'rock' problem from before.

[Youngman442002]

I am beginning to wonder whether this guy was a patriot fighting Putin..or a terrorist selling this stuff...this is not your average spy killing....makes me wonder how much of this stuff is around?

[July 4th]

Well, one thing we do know is that this stuff seems to end up everywhere once it's out in the open. Talk about sloppy KGB work!

[Eva]

I posted this information a few weeks ago, from a web site that sells small amounts of Polonium. The answer that I got from other posters (and they are probably correct) is that the source of the pollonium was probably not commercial, but a government source. If a gov't had huge amounts left over from the cold war, that it had no further use for, a dose small enough to kill someone would have little monetary cost.