Sunday, November 26, 2006
Polonium
Because of the mysterious death of Litvinenko, allegedly from a severe dose of polonium radiation poisoning, some resource information on polonium has been posted with our resource links. It is raw, undigested, but useful data. Simply click on the underlined title of this post, Polonium, or the underlined Link below, for a shortcut to the file.
Additional information is being made available through the "Comments" and links that are added to this thread.
--Alex
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Additional information is being made available through the "Comments" and links that are added to this thread.
--Alex
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Here's an indirect link to a current Chicago Tribune article that adds some intriguing information about Polonium and its toxicity. For those familiar with Pu-238, also used as an isotopic heat source, note that it's half life is about 88 years, about 230 times lower specific activity than Po-210.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0612030385dec03,1,7561862.story
"Weapon of choice may be killer's undoing in Britain"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0612030385dec03,1,7561862.story
"Weapon of choice may be killer's undoing in Britain"
George has circulated a well-conceived NYT 19 December OpEd letter by Pete Zimmerman. Here is my augmentation, as submitted today to the NYT.
More Perspective about Radiation
Peter Zimmerman’s Smoky Bomb alert is well justified (The New York Times, December 19). His prior publications about “Dirty Bombs” have provided a welcome perspective regarding over-hyped fears of fatalities from improvised radiation-dispersal devices.
However, in the case of alpha-emitting radioisotopes like polonium-210, even Zimmerman did not stipulate natural boundary conditions that mitigate potential harm. Dispersion inherently results in considerable intensity reduction. If spread over two football fields, most of it would be concentrated near the dispersal device, and the averaged intensity would be reduced by a factor of 10,000. Wind transport would change the concentration pattern, but not the overall diffusion effect. People in the immediate vicinity are more likely to suffer direct harm from the explosive than latent illness from the radiation, although the combination would compound the physical, emotional, and economic trauma.
Emergency response is alleviated by the extreme effectiveness of nose/mouth masks, and decontamination is additively aided by the timely natural decay of polonium. All of these factors diminish radiological and biological exposure effects from alpha-particle inhalation and ingestion.
Having personally carried out many experiments with alpha-emitters, I think it’s important to caution against those who might overstate the utility of polonium as an improvised terrorist threat. Indeed, all radioactive and nuclear materials need better safeguarding. But far more prevalent and vulnerable are rail, sea, and truck transported tanks of hazardous conventional liquids that could be dispersed with less preparation risk and more assured toxic dispersal.
--Alex DeVolpi
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More Perspective about Radiation
Peter Zimmerman’s Smoky Bomb alert is well justified (The New York Times, December 19). His prior publications about “Dirty Bombs” have provided a welcome perspective regarding over-hyped fears of fatalities from improvised radiation-dispersal devices.
However, in the case of alpha-emitting radioisotopes like polonium-210, even Zimmerman did not stipulate natural boundary conditions that mitigate potential harm. Dispersion inherently results in considerable intensity reduction. If spread over two football fields, most of it would be concentrated near the dispersal device, and the averaged intensity would be reduced by a factor of 10,000. Wind transport would change the concentration pattern, but not the overall diffusion effect. People in the immediate vicinity are more likely to suffer direct harm from the explosive than latent illness from the radiation, although the combination would compound the physical, emotional, and economic trauma.
Emergency response is alleviated by the extreme effectiveness of nose/mouth masks, and decontamination is additively aided by the timely natural decay of polonium. All of these factors diminish radiological and biological exposure effects from alpha-particle inhalation and ingestion.
Having personally carried out many experiments with alpha-emitters, I think it’s important to caution against those who might overstate the utility of polonium as an improvised terrorist threat. Indeed, all radioactive and nuclear materials need better safeguarding. But far more prevalent and vulnerable are rail, sea, and truck transported tanks of hazardous conventional liquids that could be dispersed with less preparation risk and more assured toxic dispersal.
--Alex DeVolpi
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