Did It Take a Nuclear Physics Lab to Murder Alexander Litvinenko?
The news reports on the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium 210 (Po-210) quote various experts as saying that polonium is an extremely rare and exotic substance. Making the “huge” amount of it needed to murder somebody supposedly would require a nuclear reactor or perhaps a particle accelerator: large, expensive and exotic pieces of equipment far beyond the reach of amateurs. The obvious implication is that the Po-210 was provided by (or stolen from) the Russian nuclear establishment. But is this true? Maybe you can’t make it at home, but I’m not so sure about the rest. To explain why, I have to start with some physics background.
