Spy Radiation - Major Alert
Computer model of Polonium crystal structure
Many of you will remember the news coverage in
December 2006 of Alexander Litvinenko, a former
Russian security officer, who died in London after
being poisoned by a radioactive substance called
polonium-210 (
Po).
Following Mr Litvinenko's tragic death, VLA became involved by providing key radiochemical analytical support to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) as part of the InterLab Forum, a collaborative agreement between six Public Sector Research Establishments to share best practice and knowledge.
It soon became apparent that
polonium-210, an unstable element
that decays by the emission of an
alpha particle, was involved. The 
PO is both difficult to extract
from sample material and hard to
determine the amount present.
Urine samples digested in nitric acid
VLA has a wealth of expertise in measuring polonium-210 in food samples but the method is slow, by design. This is largely due to the fact that polonium is highly volatile and if it gets too hot, is lost during analysis.
Based on our routine method, a
viable and rapid analytical scheme
for urine samples was developed.
We were able to reduce the time
taken for the main analytical
procedure and provide a result by
the next day. This became
important as people, who were
potentially exposed to PO
contamination, were very
concerned about the possible
health risks.
VLA provided approximately 25%
of the UK capacity for measuring
polonium-210 in urine and the vast
majority of samples tested, gave
'normal' values. Interestingly, it was
possible to detect smokers, as PO
is inhaled from cigarette smoke.
A very small number of samples
tested positive and details can be
found on the HPA website.
This unprecedented event highlighted VLA's ability to react quickly and efficiently to a national crisis, as well as proving the value of collaborations such as the InterLab Forum.
