3 ms·
> It was used on Alexander Litvinenko because the Russians wanted to show that they were able and willing to take the life of former agents that attacked their
by hedgie13 13y ago
> It was used on Alexander Litvinenko because the Russians wanted to show that they were able and willing to take the life of former agents that attacked their interests.
Or maybe not. It is very well known that Russian security services brutally murdered Litvinenko, but there is remarkably little evidence. The only evidence, in fact, is that "everyone knows it". What if new data will make you reconsider this well known wisdom?
> What motivates the use of a radioactive element that very few possess?
It is very widely used and easily available.
- ucha 13y agoWidely used? Easily available? Where and by who?
- hedgie13 13y agoPhotographer brushes, textile mills, etc -- source of alpha radiation to get rid of static electricity.
- bashinator 13y agoRight here, by anybody in the U.S. http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_5&products_id=819 http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cP...
- capnrefsmmat 13y agoYou'd need thousands of those button sources to make a lethal dose of Po-210. http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/polonium.html http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/po... > They are typically in a form that, if ingested, would pose no health problem, and the radiation is so small that they do not pose a hazard even if the polonium were to be absorbed. It would take 30,000 of these exempt quantities to represent the 3-millicurie fatal dose estimate. Button sources are typically of the size where you wouldn't mind letting undergrads gnaw on them during their physics labs. The worst they could do is choke.