The sensational murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a naturalised British citizen and former Russian KGB agent turned Russian dissident opponent of President Vladimir Putin at the end of 2006, by means of the extraordinary use of a massive dose of the radioactive isotope 210Polonium is inevitably of interest to CyberPunk tourists with a penchant for high technology and the macabre. Exotic high tech poisons have
Lots of aeroplanes and several locations were contaminated with trace amounts of 210Polonium, which is a very active emitter of alpha particles, which are usually blocked by the human skin, but which is lethal if inhaled or ingested. It is so active an isotope, with a half life of 138 days, that it tend to spall or sublime, if left exposed to the atmosphere i.e. atoms of 210Polonium are knocked away from the surface by the vigour of the alpha particle flux from the bulk of the solid or liquid containing the isotope, thereby leaving minute traces at the sites where the victim and the poisoner(s) visited.
Most of these locations in central London are in Mayfair except for 1 Cavendish Place and UCL Hospital.
There are other locations which were contaminated with traces of 210Polonium, in North London e.g. Litvineko's home in Osier Avenue 140 Osier Crescent in Haringey, Arsenal football stadium, Heathrow Airport etc., outside of Central London, either by contact with Alexander Litvinenko or with his alleged murderer Alexei Lugovoi.
N.B. all of these locations have been declared safe - remember the half life of 210Polonium is138 days.
Also involved in this high tech spook saga, were:
- Metropolitan Police Counter-terrorism Command, New Scotland Yard, Broadway
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Whitehall
- Embassy of the Russian Federation, 6 - 7 Kensington Palace Gardens
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