Comments on: Polonium 210: The Poison that Killed Alexander Litvinenko

By: Michael Silver

Michael Silver — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 20:14:59 +0000

Hi. I work at American Elements. Thought you might be interested in its website as a resource in your Sci/Tech links. In addition to Polonium info, the conmpany manufactures Isotopes and Nanomaterials, so you can see information and applications on all the elemental isotopes, as well as, nanoparticles, fuel cell materials, solar energy materials, etc. Cheers!

By: Mike Tidd

Mike Tidd — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:04:09 +0000

Does anyone know, or know where to find, the maximum permissible concentration of PARTICULATE Po-210, i.e Bequerels per cubic metre or microcuries per cubic centimetre?

By: Ted Rolle

Ted Rolle — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 00:58:34 +0000

Is polonium itself poisonous, or is it the radioactivity?

By: Max

Max — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 10:27:17 +0000

All a bit of an attempt to capitalise on an unfortunate accident… looks like Litvinenko’s Micro Nuclear Battery – which probably powered a transmitter – had ruptured, releasing the Polonium 210 into his body.

So the BBC report in which an unamed source at the hospital had revealed that 3 dense objects had shown up on an x-ray of his body, and that one of these objects had appeared to have been ruptured, was correct.

Therefore the police are not treating this as a ‘murder’, only as a ‘suspicious death’. The rest of the unfounded rumour mongering is just anti Putin PR.

By: Lem Shattuck

Lem Shattuck — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 14:28:34 +0000

What I find very interesting is that nobody in the press or blogs seems yet to have connected the poison to one of its main uses — triggers for thermonuclear weapons. Was there a message in the choice of poison? Is somebody making enough Po-210 to be very, very dangerous? Is it irony from defunct Soviet nuclear weapons? Coincidence?