25 November 2006

Half Life

The British police say they are treating the matter as an “unexplained death.” They have stopped short of calling it a murder, though the victim did, from what became his deathbed, name his murderer, or at least the man he claimed was responsible for it.

By now you have certainly seen the picture of the wraithlike Mr. Clean that Alexander Litvinenko became over this month.  Previous photos show him as a virile man in middle life, a shock of sandy hair, and piercing eyes.

At the end, only the glow of his eyes remained. The thing that has the police baffled is what killed him. Not that they don't know what it was. They do, and that is the problem.

The fatal substance is a radioactive element named Polonium 210.

Polonium was the first material discovered by Marie Sklodowska Curie in 1898. She was conducting radiochemical analysis of pitchblende in her laboratory in Paris, and named the silvery gray material in honor of her Polish homeland.

There was no independent Poland at the time, being divided among and between Russia, Prussia and Austria. Madam Curie hoped that her dramatic discovery would highlight the injustice, and provoke controversy. It was the first, but certainly not the last time that radioactive materials would be used for political purposes.

Polonium 210 is also called “Radium F” by the more politically correct,  and is quite rare. The distribution in the earth's crust is about one part in ten-to-the-fifteenth power; which is more zeros than I can reliably type. Put another way, a ton of uranium ore contains only about 100 micrograms (0.0001 grams) of the pesky stuff.

It occurs in nature as a decay product of the uranium family, and has a half-life of 138.4 days, which is much longer than the news cycle. That means the lethal dose given to Mr. Litvenenko has degraded significantly since it entered his body, and will continue to do so, half-by-half, three times per year until his grave is barely detectable by Geiger counter.

Despite being so unusual a substance, there are reasons that a person or persons unknown might have Polonium. For example, the substance is a very strong emitter of alpha particles, and a single gram produces 140 watts of heat energy, and is being considered as a lightweight heat source for spacecraft applications.

In fact, Polonium 210 was used to power the Soviet Lunokhod 2 Rover, which carried a bas relief of Lenin and the Soviet coat-of-arms to the moon as part of a photographic mission.

Polonium can also be used to eliminate static electricity in machinery that rolls paper or sheet-metal or drawn wires. It is also used in brushes to remove dust from photographic films, although the polonium must be carefully sealed to protect the user from contamination.

The radioactive stuff that Madam Curie worked with killed her in the end, after all, since she did not know how deadly it was.

I know that New Scotland Yard is working all sorts of theories this weekend, half-consumed paper cups of coffee perched on government-issue desks. With the accusations so personal, and so sensitive, every avenue must be examined.

Mr. Putin's alibi is air-tight; he was not in town. Other suspects are being identified. Senior figures in the nuclear power-plant industry are being questioned, as are builders of spacecraft, owners of paper and steel mills, and photographers.

Of course, the easiest way to acquire Polonium is to place a special for it from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where it is available at a cost of $3600 per microcurie, plus packing costs

Still, I think the authorities could cut to the chase on this. There is only one man that meets all the criteria, and is the last known Stalinist to boot.

Kim Chong Il is my leading suspect at this time. There is no way for the reclusive dictator to account for his whereabouts, and he has no vast reserves of oil or gas. It is the only answer that makes sense, and is convenient.

Copyright 2006 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com


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