Jan 28 2007
Science Fiction In Litvinenko Case
This is just a summary of some discussions I have seen in response to the Tea Pot news that came out last week and continues to roil the Litvinenko story today. What has been an eye opener for me is how little people generally understand the chemistry and physics of nuclear materials and their “poisoning” abilities. That is not meant as a slam on anyone, it is just a reminder to me how diverse people are and how they are very,very different from my own life experience. We spend so much time looking for common ground we sometimes forget to see the gaps that make us unique.
Here is a classic example of the current reporting and how, if it is accurate, it also must be completely impossible in reality.
A POT full of radioactive tea was used to poison former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, police revealed yesterday.
The “hot” teapot was found at London’s Millennium Hotel with sky-high readings of Polonium-210 – the deadly radioactive material used to murder the former KGB man.
And despite a huge police investigation, the teapot wasn’t found so it was STILL IN USE at the posh hotel in Mayfair until December 10 – six weeks after the poisoning. Even then it had “off the chart” radioactivity readings.
The problem here is a general one of all liquids – they do not change their content when moved from one container to another. So the ‘hot’ pot has to be aligned with the dead Litvinenko.
A dissolved solution (‘dissolved’ being a key assumption of an assassination, in order to esure the attack was never uncovered) has the same properties and contents from pot to cup (or bowl) to mouth. Even if we assume there was some solid material left behind at the bottom of the liquid in the tea pot, it has to be within a certain range consistent with what Litvinenko ingested.
Let’s use chicken soup as an example, and we will flavor it with some salt (the form Po-210 would be in for dissolving in an acid based liquid). If we put salt in our pot of soup the entire pot has about the same amount through out since it dissolves throughout the liquid. No matter where it ends up it is a dosage of so many grams per volume of liquid. What you will NOT see is a gently salted solution (100ths of a gram per ounce) in a cup that came from a pot that is loaded with a pound of salt. This is the problem when ‘orders of magnitude’ differences appear to be showing up between Litvinenko’s dosage and the signature of Po-210 the tea pot and tea cup.
I believe those criminally involved in this event are just like most people and don’t have a good grasp of the physics and chemistry – which is not a negative statement on anyone. But it may have led them to make a critical blunder. Since I do not have access to the actual levels found, my assessments are based on speculation from reporting. But when dealing with orders of magnitude (1, 10, 100, 1000) then speculation within some reasonable boundaries can be relatively safe.
Remember: the tea cup was mentioned by Litvinenko’s supporters BEFORE he died. This was a time when it was clear Litvinenko would not survive and an autopsy was unavoidable (as would then be the discovery of the Po-210, because any radiation death will be investigated until solved). Now this tea cup detail could be a simple recollection on events, or it could be the beginning of the diversion campaign. Which coincided with Berezovsky’s PR campaign.
What is important is that there is no way to know when the tea pot or cup where contaminated. The radioactive decay rate is tied to when the material was produced. Now, if there is a difference in the decay signature in the Po-210 in the pot and Litvinenko then clealry the tea pot has nothing to do with his death. But if the Po-210 is from the same production run, then it will show the same decay rate no matter when it was deposited. Decay rate will not help determine when the Po-210 was deposited.
A key question for me is whether the tea pot was part of the original story from Litvinenko’s police statement. Or was it a detail added weeks later which is why the police missed it? These are important details because the cup, pot and Litvinenko may have come into contact with different amounts of Po-210, which makes it impossible for their contact to be the Po-210 spiked tea. The liquid would have a fixed amount of Po-210 dissolved, so the doses it applied to the pot, cup and victim MUST be consistent to some level.
There is one scenarion where the Tea Pot could stand out – a bit. It is where the Pot was contaminated originally and some of the Po-210 sunk to the bottom. Then a small gradient of difference would be seen between pot and cup. But the cup and Litvinenko would still need to see a consistent dosage between the two, and they do not. The cup was always seen as being possibly ‘hotter’ with Po-10 than Litvinenko because it was the vessel in which the PO-210 was administered. But now with a Pot as the point of Po-210 injection, the tea cup cannot be drastically different from Litvenenko’s dose. Since it has been reported to be hot enough to stand out from all other cups, this is now the case.
But the difference between cup and pot cannot be a huge difference as well. It has to be a reasonable change, all due to solid material left in the pot. Just like my example of how a pound of salt in pot will not show a modest flavoring in the cup, chemistry dictates these differences are bounded to some level.
We shall see whether I am right (again) or not, because the tea pot is so hot, sadly, it must have contaminated others while it was in use at the hotel over the 6 weeks from Litvinenko’s poisoning to its discovery.
Health officials are bracing themselves for hundreds of calls from guests who may have been served tea at the Millennium, though last night the Health Protection Agency tried to downplay the blunder, saying there was no risk to public health.
I doubt the police missed something this ‘hot’. But those who came into contact with it will be the key to determinig when the tea pot was contaminated. The pot will poison others, and it will be consistent amounts as time progresses. From the day the pot is contaminated the amount of Po-210 sticking to the surface will drop off with every wash and as the material decays. It will deposit a certain amount of poison per volume of liquid each time it was used, and therefore the people contaminated will show a declining exposure (while accounting for the volume ingested) as time progresses from the initial contamination. Working backwards from the trail of people poisoned will determine when the pot became ‘hot’..
If I am correct and this is a plant, then people will be showing up very sick soon, or not at all! And this last point is important.
If this was a plant, but not intended or wanted to expose more people to avoid further attention, then no one may be contaminated. If the police were tipped off in a manner that the Po-210 was not exposed to the public for long few if anyone would be sick from the tea pot. For it to really be tied to Litvinenko’s poisoning on November 1 we should see many more critically sick people. This is because to be linked, it would have had to be used for 6 weeks and exposed many others.
AJ–
You wrote on the previous polonium post that you “don’t care how the Russians make tea” because the physics is the same.
I can’t believe that you read what I explained, then.
Russians make a strong tea concentrate in a teapot. They pour a few tablespoons of this concentrate into a teacup and then add boiling water to the cup.
This method of tea-making may explain why the teapot is reportedly much more contaminated than the cup.
The teapot might be ten times as contaminated as the cup if the tea was prepared Russian-style.
I just point this out since several times you have claimed that the contamination in the pot and the cup are not consistent and cite this as evidence the teapot is a “plant.”
You are not taking into account the Russian method of tea-making which might explain why the pot and the cup have different levels of contamination.
Here is a description of how Russians make tea.
http://home.fazekas.hu/~nagydani/rth/Russian-tea-HOWTO-v2.html
If the ration of contamination between the cup and pot is 1:10 or 1:4 this might by explained by my hypothesis.
AJ–
You are not considering the possibility that a small amount of polonium-contaminated tea concentrate in the teapot was poured into a teacup and then diluted by a large amout of uncontaminated boiling water, which would be how Russians ALWAYS make tea. AJ is ignoring this possible explanation when he writes:
“the cup, pot and Litvinenko may have come into contact with different amounts of Po-210, which makes it impossible for their contact to be the Po-210 spiked tea. The liquid would have a fixed amount of Po-210 dissolved, so the doses it applied to the pot, cup and victim MUST be consistent to some level.
There is one scenarion where the Tea Pot could stand out – a bit. It is where the Pot was contaminated originally and some of the Po-210 sunk to the bottom. Then a small gradient of difference would be seen between pot and cup. But the cup and Litvinenko would still need to see a consistent dosage between the two, and they do not. The cup was always seen as being possibly ‘hotter’ with Po-10 than Litvinenko because it was the vessel in which the PO-210 was administered. But now with a Pot as the point of Po-210 injection, the tea cup cannot be drastically different from Litvenenko’s dose.”
AJ,
The Polonium salt is likely to have been washed out of the porcelain teapot. It seems likely that washing should have removed much of the Polonium that was placed within.
But the glaze is not always perfect. Thus there might have been some imperfections on the inside of the teapot which allowed some Polonium to get past the hard glaze. Additional washings might have gradually removed this. The tea cup may have had a very fine glaze that held out nearly all of the Polonium.
This type of factor needs to be evaulated, as well as concentrations.
Snapple,
The strength of the tea is irrelevant. It is the strength of the Po-210 I am focused on. I understood your point, but it only makes my point stronger. You too are not discussing chemistry as we know it. Just like chicken soup concentrate is more dense, when you add water to the pot and then put some of the soup from the pot in a cup it is all the same concentration. It is the ‘meaning’ of the word ‘disslolved’.
In your example the initial concentration was 100 milligrams per ounce, and it was one ounce in amount. That means you start with 100 milligrams. Then they add ten ounces of water. Then the dose is 1o milligrams per ounce – but there is still only 100 milligrams in total in the tea pot.
I accounted for these 10 times or 100 times differences because they are irrelevant to the discrepencies we are seeing which are much larger. The point is the tea pot must show 10 milligrams/ounce, as must the cup and must Litvinenko.
If he had only a sip of one ounce then he got 10 milligrams. This is THE MOST concentrated the solution could be. If he drank half a cup (3-4 ounces) and showed 10 milligrams of poisoning then the solution was 1/3rd of 1/4th the 10 millgrams we computed for the sip – or roughly 2.5 milligrams per ounce. The less he drank the more concentrated the solution, and vise versa.
The problem is the reported impact on the tea cup and pot. To be that ‘hot’ implies the tea pot saw 1000+ times the amount in Litvinenko – or more. If the pot is 1000 times more contaminated, then Litvinenko had to have sipped a thousandths of an ounce. It is is 10,000 times hottter he would have had to sip one ten thousandsths of an ounce, etc. So we rapidlybound reality between the three ‘containers’ (pot, cup and Litvinenko).
The pot and cup have to have the same or similar amounts because the chemical make up of the tea does not change with each container. The doses are the same per volume. And in a liquid solution, only the first few centimeters of liquid from the surface interacts with the surface, the rest is too far for alpha radiation to travel.
My point is there has to be realistic levels throughout (not exact). But the levels being reported are enormously different. “Off the scale” is not what showed up in Litvinenko. So there is a huge disconnect. The cup and pot will not see anything like a 1:10 difference in Po-210 grams/ml, even under your scenario. What I am seeing is well beyond 1:10. Litvinenko’s dose was safe to skin if it were on the outside of his body. So it would be more than safe to porcelain. If it marked porcelain with ‘off the scale’ radiation, then it was not connected to Litvinenko’s death.
AJ writes:
“The problem here is a general one of all liquids – they do not change their content when moved from one container to another. So the ‘hot’ pot has to be aligned with the dead Litvinenko.”
You are assuming the liquid was only moved from the pot to the cup. I am trying to explain that when Russians make tea they pour a small amount of tea concentrate into a teacup and then add a LOT of water.
It is as much as 1 portion of tea concentrate to 9 portions of water.
I don’t know all your physics, but I have a degree in Russian Studies and know how Russians make tea! And I also know that pouring nine cups of water in one cup of chicken soup would dilute the salt in the chicken soup!
Please give a sign that you grasp this concept from Home Economics.
You are comparing this to chicken soup and are now changing your story and claiming you know physics.
You don’t have the forensics report, AJ.
And two different containers might wash out differently.
Perhaps the teapot was put away and not used.
There are so many variables.
Scotland Yard, MI5 and MI6 are all investigating this case.
They have the evidence. I doubt they would accuse the Russian government of sponsoring a hit unless they had real good evidence.
AJ writes:
“Just like chicken soup concentrate is more dense, when you add water to the pot and then put some of the soup from the pot in a cup it is all the same concentration. It is the ‘meaning’ of the word ‘disslolved’. ”
THAT IS NOT HOW RUSSIANS MAKE TEA. THEY DO NOT ADD WATER TO THE POT.
What is the matter with you? Can’t you read?
Russians make a tea concentrate (your salt water) in the teapot. They pour a few tablespoons of the tea concentrate (your salt water) into their cup. then they add PLAIN WATER to the CUP–NOT TO THE POT!!!!!!
RUSSIANS DO NOT ADD WATER TO THE TEA CONCENTRATE IN THE TEAPOT! THEY PUT A SMALL AMOUNT OF TEA CONCENTRATE IN A CUP AND ADD PLAIN BOILED WATER TO THE CUP.
You are adding water to the POT–THE RUSSIANS DON’T DO THAT.
Snapple,
I got your point – your not correct. The tea pot only sees grams of Po-210 as a source of radiation impacting its surface. Even if the original source was a concentrate for a few moments, it is the final strength that enters Litvinenko that matters.
I will try this one last time. If I put ten pounds of salt into chicken soup concentrate, adding 10 ounces of water will not dilute it enough to make it tastey. The pot had a defined amount of Po-210. Whether that was in 2 ounces or 20 it doesn’t matter. In the end Litvinenko ingested a certain amount of Po-210. The only question is whether he had one sip, which could be estimated at a half to one ounce, or did he drink the entire cup, which is around 6 ounces. These are barely a ten fold difference. So let’s assume his 10 millionths of a gram came from a sip of half an ounce. That means his dosage was 20 millionths of gram per ounce. That is what had to be seen in the cup and in the Pot in terms of density. A 6 ounce cup would see 20 micrograms per ounce, for a total of 120 micrograms of Po-210. If the tea pot held 4 cups of tea then it still had a density of 20 micrograms per ounce with a total of 480 micrograms.
This stuff is so deadly the killing dosages are so small they will not build up enough material to impact anything but biological matter. The 10 micrograms of Po-210 is 200 times the lethal dose – the very top end of the estimates we have seen. Even at this extreme end the amount of Po-210 is microscopic – and will not make a tea pot “hot” off the scale. To make it off the scale hot would be orders of magnitude more than we saw in Litvinenko. This chain of vessels has to be consistent and it is not. 480 micrograms, whether in 1 ounce (concentrate) or 24 ounces (the final pot of tea) is not going to make a distinguishing cup or pot.
We shall see. I know I am speculating based on subjective media phrases like ‘off the scale’ – but it has to be consistent.
BTW, if the Po-210 came from a different production run or facility than that found in Litvinenko – then the pot was clearly a plant.
You are crazy or something. This is a waste of my time,
You still aren’t diluting your soup like the Russians dilute tea.
If you were so smart, you would be investigating this crime, not blogging about it.
You get way too far out in front of your evidence.
You didn’t even know that the Republicans were going to lose the elections.
Snapple.
Physics is physics, and dilutions work according to simple math. Stop getting angry at me because you are not as scientific expert.
And to others, I am just about ready to concede this one – if it is proven that the amount of Po-210 that killed Litvinenko does scar tea cups and tea pots. While I would be surprised this is the case, as long as it is shown scientifically then it is what it is. I find it hard to believe something that would not leave a sign on flesh leaves a mark on pottery, but it could. But that is what is required for this to be an assassination. If people want to claim the hidden nature of Po-210 doesn’t work on porcelain, but only on human flesh then we have only one conclusion to make. I am not ready to make that leap.
Snapple,
Agreed, if the water went into the cup then it would be ten times hotter in the pot – but we are still way too hot for Litvinenko’s dosage. I doubt this was how it was made – but possible.
Now, someone needs to show the pot is only 10 times hotter than the cup, which I doubt. It cannot be hundreds of times hotter.
Also, someone needs to prove the pot was contaminated at the same time as the cup and Litvinenko. Being in the public domain for weeks makes this impossible to prove.
But if the pot is more than 10-50 times the cup OR Litvinenko, then this teaspoon theory falls apart.
And now that we mention the tea spoon – where is that? It would be hottest of all!
You are the one who is mad. You are the one who keeps adding water to the tea/soup instead of to the teacup.
You just can’t stand to be shown that you–a blogger— might not be able to figure out every mystery better than the experts.
You don’t read what people explain. You keep adding water to the soup/pot instead of to the cup.
Go “talk” with Crazy Carol.
Or look in the mirror.
Gotta tell ya. The two atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Heroshima did not put those cities out of business. But, the no, bomb; only fire, at Chernobyl, has made that city UNLIVABLE! To this day. And, beyond. I think I saw an article about how eerie Chernobyl is these days. There’s sound. Because the loudspeakers are on. But no one is there. Not even thieves come, to pick up all that was left behind. And, yet? One woman, who refused to evacuate, still has her home there.
And, none of us know the price paid by the men who came to put out the fire.
Again? Going back to the dropping of America’s bombs, there were question marks if the Enola Gay, for instance, could get out of the way of the shock waves; and make it home.
There was also things the Manhattan Project was looking for. How detrimental would the dropped bomb be? Could it consume the world? Set off a problem that beyond the scope of the mushroom cloud, the entire world would be lost? I kid you not. Those were some of the questions scientists were asking. (And, then we had the test in the Navada(?) desert. And, Richard Feynman wrote that he jumped into a truck, to see for himself what the explosion really looked like. Since he knew his eyes were going to be protected by the windshield. Everybody else invited to watch. Put on dark glasses.
As a scientist, Feynman knew he could do that! Go inside a truck and gaze out through the windshield. And, not go blind.
Here?
Isn’t it something that russia, who has lots of examples of radioactivity causing cancers and death. (And, who knows what else? Since birth defects don’t seem to show up as a threat. But that doesn’t mean exposure to radiation doesn’t do crazy stuff to DNA, either.)
While our media? Seems reluctant to go with any story that says russia is a hotbed of black marketeering. And, also a place where workers rule. Not floor managers at plants. And, they can’t so much as produce pencils that would be worth selling on the worldwide markets.
Yet Litvinenko is being portrayed as a “victim.” Was he?
Not in my book. But then I see no reason why we have to hide facts about how London is now being overtaken by Islamic “cells.” (Mark Steyn addresses this, today. He calls the old soviets “sclorotic.” Now our media has succumbed to the same disease of not aging very well.)
Thank goodness for the Internet. At least I, myself, can you show ya’all, that I don’t believe the “assassination” plot at all. And, the bigger story is buried. By propaganda artists, long out of the business of telling the truth.
In the old days? If you bought a Detroit lemon? Do you know how ordinary people reacted? They’d have a big LEMON sign painted up; and they’d drive around the block, of the car dealership! (That’s how the word “LEMON” came to mean a poorly engineered car. That gave the owner nothing but problems.) Sometimes, this motivated the car dealership to “halp” the car owner by buying back the vehicle in question. And, at other times? Business in the car dealership dropped off.
You could say the “business dropped off slowly.” So it went unnoticed. Until, of course, you open your garage, and you get into a car, today, that doesn’t carry a Detroit label.
So go ahead. Surprise yourself. Toyota is today’s #1 car manufacturer.
And, the Internet is not only growing; but it’s picked up all those people who cancelled subscriptions to the news media. And, it caters to people who can READ. You want to talk middle-class? READING is a skill you need! Hamberger flippers, and assorted “halp” that cannot read, do not make up America’s MAINSTREAM.
Do take heart.
AIDS also caused enough deaths, that the truth finally escaped “the box.” Or the bath houses. Truth does that. And, it lingers.
As to London? If Scotland Yard doesn’t care that the russians are depositing IN lots of radioactive materials, then what happens? Because at least one of those planes that traveled the Moscow to Hamberg route, have been taken out of commission.
Hmm? Japan has no problems with Heroshima and Nagasaki, these days. Chernobyl, however, stays too hot for humans. And, this “little spill” of the smugglers? You don’t see it? The “hot” teapot doesn’t raise your eyebrows? Hot today? Hot like in still to poisonous to use? And, you’ll also notice “no bomb went off.” Just a trade of envelopes.
“Pile the bodies high.” Robert Frost’s poem? About how the grass would grow, and cover the battlefields of Verdun? So people could go about their business of “forgetting.” Are we there, yet, with AIDS?
Maybe it would be clearer if AJ changed the chicken soup example to concentrated Russian salt tea. Let’s say 1 cup hot water and 1/2 cup salt (or polonium). That would make 24 tablespoons of salt tea, to which you could add 6 oz. of hot water in a teacup.
But it seems to me that we don’t really know what the Russians were doing with the teapot. For all we know they were pouring polonium from the teapot to the cup and then pouring the polonium into travel containers. Sure, it seems a little unbelievable — but then, everything these people were doing seems very odd.
I don’t think you should stop speculating just because they found a contaminated teapot, because it doesn’t change any of the very suspicious elements of the poisonings. The key question remains how much polonium were they carrying around for how long? An assassination explanation just seems to leave so many loose threads…
Don’t surrender just yet, AJ — I enjoy reading your theories very much.
Ya know what else I’ve noticed?
Scotland Yard, as well as the local constables, have muslem hires.
That means not only is the media beset with foul odors from the propaganda artists, islam is hollowing out the core of England’s population. And, supplanting it with islamic garbage. Even though your average Londoner HATES the “unassimalated yoots.” Unlike the nazi’s, there’s no name, yet, for this infiltrated “gar-barge.”
And, ya know what else I’ve noticed? Goldfarb is an American PR expert. Yet he’s had no trouble at all peddling this false and crappy story ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC!
Prior to WW2, the insiders hated Winston Churchill. But the “stiff-upper-lipped” Briton DEMANDED he be put into the government. Ah. Those were the days! News was hard to come by. The threat was great. And, almost to a man the nazi’s were hated. Couldn’t get to first base.
And, yet, here? It’s the imam who was terrified of radiating his own crowd. (Which leads me to suspect that at some point a mosque was used to hold radioactive contraband. Till someone’s beard fell out. Yes. That news was withheld from the public.) But if you think it’s standard for a casket to remain outside a temple building; for a funeral ceremony, have I got news for you! Let alone, except for the casket, if you go and look at “that photo” … You’ll see russian chaps standing around as pallbearers. And, there are no cars anywhere near the gravel path.)
As Sherlock Holmes would say, “the hounds didn’t bark.”
As to “tea being made” in front of Litvinenko’s eyes; where there is one pot brewed with “a concentration.” And, he gets a cup-full, I think, first off he’d notice NOBODY ELSE IS TAKING EVEN A SIP.
Even a dork of a spy agent, dumber than dirt, would be trained to NOTICE his surroundings.
And, for proof? When Litvinenko blamed Scaramella, his “proof” was that Scaramella didn’t want to eat the raw fish. And, only ordered bottled water. The cap of which he twisted off, himself.
And, some bozo wants to convince you that you could poison Litvinenko with “tea” if you promised him it was made just like it was made in russia? Sitting in a samovar until the coagulated bottom looked like tar? Man, some dudes are really stupid.
At least Alfred Hitchcock appreciated his audience enough to know that the MacGuffins had to be believable.
Remember, you’re in a room in a five-star hotel. No Lipton teabags! And, even more surprising, there are russian guys in the room. And, when the maid comes in to clean, no evidence that anyone screwed. Or got screwed. Pass the envelope, please.
Besides, for all those people? Being in “that” room, had to be worth money.
Carol Herman raves:
“[S]ome bozo wants to convince you that you could poison Litvinenko with “tea†if you promised him it was made just like it was made in russia? Sitting in a samovar until the coagulated bottom looked like tar? Man, some dudes are really stupid.”
Really stupid, huh?
Samovars NEVER have tea leaves put in them. Samovars are only used to heat the water. Tea leaves are put in a teapot and steeped in water to make a concentrated tea. A small amount of this steeped tea is poured into a cup. Then the cup is filled with boiled water, either from a samovar or from a conventional tea kettle.
Russians didn’t make any tea in the hotel. It was brought to them. It was an English way of making tea there, not Russian
“Russians didn’t make any tea in the hotel. It was brought to them. It was an English way of making tea there, not Russian”
Bless you Ermit, I thought that no one would point out to Snapple that they were in England when the tea was made. Snapple, do you think that if there were Hungarian patrons partaking of tea at the hotel, they would be having it Hungarian style? NO! The people who make tea at a resturant are not going to make it all the different possible ways so as to correspond to the cultural heritage of each customer!
you don’t have a clue what you are talking about.
You don’t know the amounts in either tea-pot, or cup. You don’t know the properties of Po salts in solution adsorbing to pots or cups. Yet based on your completely unfounded guesses, out comes a hypothesis.
After several months, you still haven’t twigged that alpha emitters have an extremely short range in air; so to detect alpha contamination in the tea pot, you would have to put a geiger/ take a swab from inside the teapot- not necessarily a trivial issue, given the type of geiger likely in use. “I doubt the police missed something this ‘hot’.” you don’t have a clue what you are talking about, and you have no clue about the nature of the residual contamination; your absence of knowledge of the amounts, and its chemical form, makes your speculation about people being poisoned into so much hogwash.
“This was a time when it was clear Litvinenko would not survive and an autopsy was unavoidable (as would then be the discovery of the Po-210, because any radiation death will be investigated until solved). ”
yet again, you are rewriting history. Until they found the alpha emitter in his urine, they didn’t know it was radiation poisoning. They were investigating theories of cytostatic poisoning, thallium poisoning; they didn’t have a clue. As you are aware, sampling of tissue at post-mortem for liquid scintillation analysis is not a standard procedure; in fact, vanishingly unlikely. Poisoning by radioisotope is extremely uncommon.
you also seem to be unaware of the “creep” caused by alpha emission.
“What has been an eye opener for me is how little people generally understand the chemistry and physics of nuclear materials and their “poisoning†abilities.”
quite
per
England’s paper of record says a Russian named Vladislav made the tea in the hotel room. But you bloggers all know better.
News accounts speak of a kettle in the room with WATER in it. Sounds to me like Vladislav could have easily been making Russian tea.
Very often English hotel rooms have electric kettles, so the tea could easily have been prepared Russian-style. The first water would have been used to make the tea concentrate and more water could be boiled to pour into the cup along with a small amount of the concentrated tea.
The news accounts by England’s paper of record don’t mention room service. They say a man named Vladislav made Alex Litvinenko a cup of tea in the hotel room.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2556377,00.html
QUOTE:
Mr Gordievsky told The Times yesterday how “Vladislav was described as someone who could help Mr Litvinenko win a lucrative contract with a Moscow-based private security company.
“Sasha (his name for Litvinenko) remembered the man making him a cup of tea using WATER from a KETTLE.
“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.
END QUOTE
They are Russian making their own tea in a hotel room. They would probably make it Rusian style. Perhaps the concentrate was already made and the killer just poured the concentrate into a cup and added water from the kettle.