But Polonium, you need a nuclear program to make it. It took a bit of digging but
this seems to be the production process.
Due to its scarcity, polonium is usually produced by bombarding
bismuth-209 with
neutrons in a nuclear reactor. This forms bismuth-210, which has a
half-life of 5 days. Bismuth-210 decays into polonium-210 through
beta decay. Milligram amounts of polonium-210 have been produced by this method.
Israel’s Lethal History with Polonium
by RICHARD SILVERSTEIN
With news breaking in Al Jazeera this week about the possible poisoning of Yasser Arafat by polonium, I thought it worthwhile to examine an interesting line in Clayton Swisher’s report, which refers to an accident in an Israeli lab involving the material. Through further research, I discovered that this was the first nuclear accident in Israeli history and it took the lives of a number of Israeli researchers, both immediately after the accident and even decades later.
This report by Haaretz’s Akiva Eldar is based on Michael Karpin’s book, The Bomb in the Basement: How Israel Went Nuclear and What That Means for the World:
Dr. Dror Sadeh: One of earliest victims of Israeli polonium poisoning, died of cancer at age 60 after major 1957 radiation leak
According to the book, in 1957 a leak was discovered at a Weizmann Institute laboratory operated by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Traces of polonium 210 were found on the hands of Prof. Dror Sadeh, a physicist who researched radioactive materials, as well as on various objects in the professor’s home. The AEC handled the accident with deep secrecy. After a short investigation, whose results were not presented to even the workers, the lab was hermetically sealed for several months.
Israel’s Lethal History with Polonium Tikun-Olam Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם
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Swiss Scientists Confirm Arafat Murdered by Polonium
by RICHARD SILVERSTEIN on NOVEMBER 7, 2013
Yesterday, the PA and scientists who studied the skeletal remains of Yasser Arafat confirmed (full scientific report here) that he was assassinated, poisoned with the highest dose of polonium ever recorded in a human being. The level was either 18 or 36 times the normal level (depending on how one counts a normal dose). The scientists rated the certainty of their findings on a scale of 1 to 6, giving the results a 5 score, meaning they had an 83% level of confidence.
Haaretz journalist, Danny Rubinstein, who wrote an earlier book about Arafat, spent many hours interviewing Israelis officials. He says that they were obsessed with destroying Arafat’s political credibility and ultimately getting rid of him:
In the weeks and months before Arafat’s death, he [Rubinstein] said, people in Sharon’s inner circle talked constantly about how to get rid of him. “For me, it was very clear from the beginning. Every day this was the topic – should we expel him, or kill him, or bomb the Muqata [Arafat's HQ]. It was obvious to me that they would find a way.”
In September, 2003, Israeli vice-premier Ehud Olmert had told Israel Radio virtually the same thing, that murder was definitely under consideration:
“Killing [him] is definitely one of the options.”
Even as unlikely a source as Jeffrey Goldberg provides supporting evidence confirming Sharon’s enthusiasm for offing Arafat:
[Those in] the Israeli government [who deny Israeli leaders wanted to kill Arafat] should remember that it was the official policy of several past Israeli leaders to try to kill Arafat…I had several conversations on the subject of assassinating Arafat with his principal Israeli nemesis, Ariel Sharon, and today’s report sent me back to a profile I wrote of Sharon that appeared 12 years ago:
“…By Arafat’s own count, Sharon has tried to have him killed thirteen times. Sharon wouldn’t fix on a number, but he said the opportunity had arisen repeatedly. ‘All the governments of Israel for many years, Labor, Likud, all of them, made an effort — and I want to use a subtle word for the American reader — to remove him from our society. We never succeeded.’”
Swiss Scientists Confirm Arafat Murdered by Polonium Tikun-Olam Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם
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The Dimona Plutonium Nuclear Reactor
The Dimona Plutonium Nuclear Reactor
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Who has died from it?
In addition to Litvinenko’s presumed death from polonium poisoning, some speculate that the Curies’ daughter Irene, who died of leukemia, may have developed the disease after accidentally being exposed to polonium in the laboratory. Israeli author Michal Karpin has claimed the cancer deaths of several Israeli scientists were the result of a polonium leak at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1957. Israeli officials have never acknowledged a connection.
Everything you need to know about polonium, the rare element allegedly used to poison Yasser Arafat - The Globe and Mail
but -
The head of a Russian forensics agency said on Tuesday that samples from the body of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had revealed no traces of radioactive polonium, a Russian news agency reported.
However, the government scientific body later denied that it had made any official statement about the research, saying only that it had handed its results to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Russian official rules out Arafat polonium poisoning | Israel | Jewish Journal
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Yasser Arafat polonium poisoning no accident, lab says
Scientists confirm widow's belief that Arafat poisoned
The Associated Press Posted: Nov 07, 2013 10:55 AM ET Last Updated: Nov 07, 2013 12:54 PM ET
"Can we exclude polonium as cause of death? The response is clearly `no,' he said. "Was polonium the cause of the death for certain? The answer is no."
Yasser Arafat polonium poisoning no accident, lab says - World - CBC News
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so maybe it was Jack Ruby...acting alone.
