PO-210 is an alpha emitter, a kind of radiation that emits a particle an not electrons, etc. Airport screens are set up for gamma emmitters (like Uranium). To detect alpha radiation the detector needs to be within under an inch of the material because alpha waves only travel a very short distance. Normally your skin will protect you. But if you ingest or inhale the material it can become disolves and start flowing through your body. Once inside it kills cells it encounters with its burst of radiation and heat. After a while, and a strong enough dose, it starts taking out critical systems in your body. If you get it on your skin you can wash it off. If you get it inside you it can be deadly.

I think he’s made his case well. In a nutshell, too much Po-210 all over the friggin’ place to be an assassin’s weapon – more likely smuggling.

In any event, interesting reading. Please keep me informed, both of you. I still HOPE Allahpundit is right… just fear that AJ has the facts on his side and a better grasp of the scientific and logical analysis side of things in this case.

AP’s still my go to political analysis blogger… for obvious reasons, AJ!

Cheers all.

Warmly,

… distinctive Central Asian features …

A Chechen?

Does the article say Litvinenko said this:

“His belief is that the water from the kettle was only lukewarm and that the polonium-210 was added, which heated the drink through radiation so he had a hot cup of tea. The poison would have showed up in a cold drink,” he added.

If so, he seems to know a thing or two about polonium-210.

Sadly, the assassination theory is all mucked up now. The three smugglers were at the third hotel with numerous rooms contaminated that correspond to three trips by Lugovoi to meet Litvinenko. One of those was Litvinenko’s first poisoning. BTW – to know there were two poisonings of Litvinenko means the Po-210 may not have come from the same sources. Anyway, here are the posts which applies the science and blows the assassination theory away:

One

Two

Three

Someday the assassin theorists need to explain how an assassin handled a billionth of a gram of Po-210 and administered it so that most of the contamination was in the room and on the people (not in them).

Cheers, AJStrata

Somebody’s right, somebody’s wrong. I’m afraid to bet either way right now. Read these and see if you can figure it out: Shock: Brit cops set to name mystery man as Litvinenko killer Litvinenko Assassination Theory Just About Eliminated…

“Vladislav.” Who met with Litvenenko, as well as Kotvun and Lugovoy, in a Millenium Hotel room. And arrived in London on the same flight as Kotvun, the guy whose Hamburg apartment is, coincidentally enough, a HazMat site. Although that might……