Polonium

Polonium (Latin: Polonium) is a chemical element on the periodic table of elements whose symbol is Po and its atomic number is 84. It is a rare, highly radioactive metal, chemically similar to tellurium and bismuth, present in uranium ores.

Features

These substances dissolve very easily in acids, but are only slightly soluble in alkalis. It is chemically related to tellurium and bismuth. Polonium is a volatile metal, reducible to 50% after 45 hours in air at a temperature of 54.8 °C (328 K). None of the estimated 50 isotopes of polonium is stable. It is extremely toxic and highly radioactive. Polonium has been found in uranium ores, tobacco smoke, and as a contaminant. All elements starting with polonium are significantly radioactive. It is in group 16 and its atomic number is 84.

Applications

Mixed or alloyed with beryllium, polonium can be a source of neutrons, and was used as such in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, to produce in the short time of the implosion (produced by the conventional explosive TNT) a number enough neutrons to trigger the plutonium chain reaction, and the consequent atomic explosion.

It is also used in devices designed to eliminate static charge, in special brushes to eliminate dust accumulated in photographic films and also in heat sources for artificial satellites or space probes.

Polonium-210

This polonium isotope is an alpha emitter with a half-life of 138.39 days. One milligram of ²¹⁰Po emits as many alpha particles as 5 grams of radium. Therefore, it releases a large amount of energy, reaching heat-producing devices (in radioisotope thermoelectric generators or RTGs) a temperature of more than 750 K with just half a gram. A single gram of this isotope generates 130 watts of caloric power.^{[citation needed]}

²¹⁰Po has been used as a light source of heat to power the thermoelectric cells of some artificial satellites and lunar probes.

Polonium-210 in tobacco

The presence of polonium in tobacco smoke has been known since the early 1960s. Some of the world's largest tobacco companies have been unsuccessfully searching for ways to remove this substance for 40 years. However, they never published the results.

Polonium-210 contained in phosphate fertilizers is absorbed by the roots of plants (such as tobacco) and stored in their tissues. Plants fertilized with rock phosphates contain polonium-210, and the alpha radiation that emits is estimated to cause around 11,700 deaths annually worldwide from lung cancer.

Negative effects

Swallowing or inhaling too much can have the same consequences as Hiroshima radiation, but individually. These effects can be noticed from the third day, they are not immediate. The first symptoms are hair loss and gastrointestinal discomfort. Next, the liver and kidneys fail; metabolism and bone marrow are paralyzed.^{[citation needed]}

Death will be from multiple organ failure. If exposure is low, only gastrointestinal symptoms may appear.

These are the following symptoms:

• The effects by exposure are organic failures, hair loss, gastric pains, lung damage and kidneys and total immune system failure.
• If the intoxication is low, the symptoms tend to disappear in a few days.
• The medical treatment passes through a chelant or chemical compound that helps to expel polonium 210 through feces and urine.^{[chuckles]required]}

History

Marie Curie wanted the new chemical element, with the name of her country of origin, to draw greater attention to the lack of a sovereign and independent Poland.

Also known as Radium F, polonium was discovered by Marie Curie-Skłodowska and Pierre Curie in 1898, and was later renamed after Marie Curie's homeland of Poland. At that time, Poland was not an independent country and was under the rule of Russia, Prussia and Austria, and Marie hoped that this appointment would add to her notoriety. It was the first element whose name derived from a political controversy.

It was the 1st element discovered by the Curies while they were investigating the causes of radioactivity in pitchblende. The pitchblende, after removing the uranium and radium, was even more radioactive than these elements combined. This led them to find the new item. The electroscope showed him separating it with bismuth.

Getting

Although it is a naturally occurring element, it is only present in naturally occurring uranium ores at 100 micrograms per ton.

In 1934 it was shown that when naturally occurring bismuth (²⁰⁹Bi) is bombarded with neutrons, ²¹⁰Bi is created, which is transformed by beta decay into Polonium -210. Polonium in milligram quantities can be created by this procedure, using large neutron fluxes, such as those found in nuclear reactors.

Polonium is a very rare element in nature due to the short half-life of all its isotopes. Seven isotopes are found in trace amounts of radioisotopes as decay products: ²¹⁰ Po, ²¹⁴ Po, and ²¹⁸ Po occur in the 238 decay chain. OR; ²¹¹ Po and ²¹⁵ Po occur in the 235 U decay chain; ²¹² Po and ²¹⁶ Po occur in the decay chain of ²³² Th. Of these, ²¹⁰ Po is the The only isotope with a half-life greater than 3 minutes.

Polonium can be found in uranium ores at about 0.1 mg per metric ton (1 part in 10 ¹⁰ ), which is about 0.2% of the abundance of radio. The amounts in the earth's crust are not harmful.

Because it is present in small concentrations, isolating polonium from natural sources is a tedious process. The largest batch of the element ever mined, made in the first half of the 20th century, contained only 40 Ci TBq (9 mg) of polonium-210 and was obtained by processing 37 tons of waste from radium production. Polonium it is usually obtained by irradiating bismuth with high-energy neutrons or protons.

In 1934, an experiment showed that when natural 209 Bi is bombarded with neutrons, ²¹⁰ Bi is created, which then decays to ²¹⁰ Po via beta decay -less. Final purification is done pyrochemically followed by liquid-liquid extraction techniques. Polonium can now be produced in milligram quantities in this procedure using high neutron fluxes found in nuclear reactors. Only around 100 grams are produced each year, virtually all in Russia, making polonium extremely rare.

This process can cause problems in liquid metal-cooled nuclear reactors based on lead-bismuth eutectic, such as those used in the Soviet Navy's K-27 submarines. Measures must be taken in these reactors to address the unwanted possibility of ²¹⁰ Po of coolant being released.

The longest-lived isotopes of polonium, ²⁰⁸ Po and ²⁰⁹ Po, can be formed by proton or deuteron bombardment of bismuth using a cyclotron. Other more unstable and neutron-deficient isotopes can be formed by irradiating platinum with carbon nuclei.

Precautions

Polonium is a highly toxic element (LD50 = 10 ng (inhaled) or 50 ng (ingested) in humans), radioactive and dangerous to handle. Even in microgram quantities, handling ²¹⁰Po is very dangerous and requires special equipment used under strict safety procedures.

Example of danger

In 2006, former Russian spy Aleksandr Litvinenko was assassinated with ²¹⁰Po, allegedly due to his investigation into the murder of journalist Anna Politkóvskaya.^{[citation needed]}

Alexander Litvinenko was employed by the Spanish National Intelligence Center (CNI) in an investigation into possible links between the Russian mafia and the country's president, Vladimir Putin. According to the British newspapers Daily Mail and the Evening Standard, this revelation was made by Ben Emmerson, lawyer for the wife of the deceased, during the preliminary hearing for the investigation of the death in London of former KGB agent, who was poisoned by polonium 210 allegedly spilled into a cup of tea he drank at the Mayfair Hotel during a meeting with former colleagues from the security services.^{[citation needed]} The same source indicates that Litvinenko also received payments from British MI6.

CNI sources refused to confirm or deny this revelation, alleging that the law strictly prevents saying if a person, even if dead, was or was not a source, a member of the service or a collaborator. However, six months before he was poisoned to death, Litvinenko contacted Spanish police officers to explain the role played by certain businessmen involved with the Russian mafia. The former Russian agent gave some clues about the importance of some mafia bosses and what kind of relationships they could maintain with high levels of the Russian State.^{[citation required]}

According to an Al Jazeera investigation in July 2012, Yasser Arafat also died of polonium-210 poisoning.