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.
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!