“The radioactive material that killed a former Russian spy in Britain can be bought on the Internet for $69,” Information Week is reporting.
Polonium-210, which experts say is many times more deadly than cyanide, can be bought legally through United Nuclear Scientific Supplies, a mail-order company that sells through the Web, based in Sandia Park, N.M. Chemcial companies sell the Polonium-210 legally for industrial use, such as removing static electricity from machinery. United Nuclear claims that it’s “currently the only legal Alpha source available without a license.“
The type of Polonium-210 sold emits alpha radiation, which can’t penetrate the skin, but is deadly if swallowed, depending on the amount ingested. The Polonium available on United Nuclear’s site can be purchased without a license because the level of radioactivity, 0.1 microcurie, does not pose a danger, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
“At that level, it’s exempt from licenses,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said. “At any exempt quantity, it’s not considered a health hazard.“
Such small amounts of Polonium could be used to calibrate devices used to detect radiation, McIntyre said. If used for that purpose, the material would remain in its sealed container, and never actually handled.
United Nuclear is run by Bob Lazar, who, some 20 years ago, claimed to have worked on alien spaceships on a secret military base in Nevada… [That’d be Area 51 –ed.]
In April, United Nuclear was ordered by the Department of Justice to stop selling chemicals that it claimed could be used to make explosives, the Albuquerque Journal reported. At the time, Lazar said he was fighting the legal challenge.
On the site, United Nuclear says it will not sell anything illegal, including explosives or the materials to make explosives. “Because our products can be potentially hazardous in the wrong hands, we will occasionally terminate and refund orders, if we feel you are a juvenile posing as an adult, inexperienced with the materials ordered, or using our products to make any sort of explosive device,” the company says.
Wired ran a story about Lazar and other science salesmen a few months back. Somehow, the Area 51 stuff never made it into the piece.
(Big ups: RC)
UPDATE 11:50 AM: Be sure to check out Arms Control Wonk’s take on the polonium poison mystery.
UPDATE 1:55 PM: “Authorities grounded three British Airways jetliners in London and Moscow on Wednesday and drew up plans to contact thousands of airplane passengers as they broadened their investigation into the radiation poisoning death of a former Russian spy,” the AP says. “Two planes at London’s Heathrow Airport tested positive for traces of radiation, a third plane has been taken out of service in Moscow awaiting examination.”
UFO Nut Sells Spy Poison Online (Updated)
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
What a terrible non-story! The whole story is blown when you admit this VERY IMPORTANT fact that blows all cause for concern right out of the water:
“The Polonium available on United Nuclear’s site can be purchased without a license because the level of radioactivity, 0.1 microcurie, does not pose a danger, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.”
This is OVER TEN MILLION TIMES less than the amount used as a poison! This who article is a load of BS, no better than an alarmist article claiming that wal-mart sells radioactive nuclear material without a license, then bury the lede that you are really talking about smoke detectors! Actually, a typical smoke detector is TEN TIMES more radioactive:
“The average activity in a smoke detector source is about one microcurie, 1 millionth of a curie.”
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/sources/smoke_alarm.htm
My mistake, I had read somewhere that they believed the poisoning was a little over a curie worth of material, but that is probably wrong, and far more than it would take to kill someone.
The amount used in the poison was only THOUSANDS of times more. :/
I just did a blog entry tonight about this, too, incorporating the Wired piece. I’ve been amused and intrigued by Lazar for a while. The guy is sketchier than freshman art 101. There are sites all over the web, as you probably noticed, dedicated to sleuthing out Bob Lazar. He’s nothing if not interesting.
Polonium is available from various reputable sources, so why focus on a pathological publicity-seeker who only sells it in tiny quantities anyway?
This sort of coverage is what encourages people like Lazar to make up their wild stories. He’s only ‘interesting’ in how far he can string some people along.
The whole UFO community is a case study in the power of human persuasion and psychology. We all want to believe that there is something better than life on this messed up rock we call Earth. In our eagerness to believe, we fall for schemes like Lazar’s. It’s a perfect scam, because of the fact that it’s not true…therefore the military will deny it. This is classic disinformation technique that’s been used by the intelligence community for a looooong time. It’s simple. Create a few rumors about a person, or group of people, let the rumors run wild, then accuse the target of a related charge. Because of the similarity to the rumors, and the likelyhood of people to jump to conclusions, the target suffers and no one believes them when they deny it. This is one case where the military had one of it’s own techniques come back around and bite it in the ass. And more likely than not, it was a pissed off intelligence officer that started the whole thing.
:)
“This is one case where the military had one of it’s own techniques come back around and bite it in the ass. ”
I’d say the opposite – the whole USAF/UFO thing has been deliberately nurtured and encouraged by the Air Force and serves their purposes rather well.
Heh…yeah I agree that they’ve used it to their advantage, but I think there’s some question as to whether they were the ones to start it or not. In any case, I’d say it either got blown way out of proportion, or was HUGELY successful. Imagine how many projects have be written off under such a guise?
So i was wondering how to get the radioactive stuff out the detector in someones mouth now. Cause now that i know this tale of poisoning, and now i know the smoke detector has more of it. Im going to be an internet reader researcher and poison my arch enemy. Thanks for blowing that story of information into something a kid could use.
Hey – since you’re into UFOs, have you seen this Roswell video?
http://www.flownetworkproductions.com/evidenceofaliens.htm
I thought it was fake until I watched Part 2. What do you think?
Hey – since you’re into UFOs, have you seen this Roswell video?
http://www.flownetworkproductions.com/evidenceofaliens.htm
I thought it was fake until I watched Part 2. What do you think?
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