The poisoning of former Soviet spy Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium smacks of a well-organised state operation.
Litvinenko鈥檚 death from heart failure in a London hospital last week was linked to polonium-210, traces of which were found in his urine by the UK 91色情片 Protection Agency (HPA). A formal inquest into his death was due to open this week.
Nick Priest, an expert on polonium-210 who used to work with the UK Atomic Energy Authority, argues that it would not be easy to obtain enough to kill someone. 鈥淚 find it difficult to believe that it was sourced in the UK or the European Union,鈥� says Priest. 鈥淵ou would need a reactor capable of producing and irradiating materials, and a radiochemical laboratory.鈥� What鈥檚 more, polonium-210 emits only short-range alpha radiation, which is blocked by the slightest barrier, making it easy to smuggle into the country. 鈥淵ou can carry it around and get it through airports without being detected. It鈥檚 an ideal material,鈥� says Priest, now at Middlesex University in London. Just a few micrograms of the isotope slipped into a drink could be lethal.
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Philip Day, an environmental radiochemist from the University of Manchester, UK, points out that as polonium-210鈥檚 half-life is 138 days, the dose that killed Litvinenko must have been made within the past five years.
The HPA says that three people with symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning are being monitored.