List of crimes involving radioactive substances
Encyclopedia
This is a list of criminal (or arguably, allegedly, or potentially criminal) acts involving radioactive substances. Inclusion in this list does not necessarily imply that anyone involved was guilty of a crime.
officer Alexander Litvinenko
was killed in London by persons unknown (as of 2006) using the short-lived alpha emitter polonium-210.
), a small scale reprocessing plant where he worked. He did not steal a large amount of plutonium, just some rags used for wiping surfaces and a small amount of liquid waste. The man was eventually sent to prison
. At least two people (besides the criminal) were contaminated by the plutonium. Two flats in Landau
in the Rhineland-Palatinate
were contaminated, and had to be cleaned at a cost of two million euro
. Photographs of the case and details of other nuclear crimes have been presented by a worker at the Institute for Transuranium Elements
.
A review of the forensic matters associated with stolen plutonium has been published.
medical treatment more than one hypothesis existed as to the cause of Litvinenko's ill health. The first theory was that it was a normal case of thallium
poisoning. Later, it was suggested that a radioactive isotope of thallium had been used. The third and final hypothesis (following Litvinenko's death) was that he had been poisoned with a radioactive isotope of polonium
. All the evidence now indicates that Russian-made polonium was used to kill Litvinenko.
of thallium might have been used.
Thallium
, in large amount, can be a poison in itself, whether radioactive or not. The 201Tl isotope of thallium, in trace amounts, is used routinely around the world for medical procedures such as myocardial scintigraphy.
Dr. Amit Nathwani, one of Litvinenko's physicians, reported: "His symptoms are slightly odd for thallium poisoning, and the chemical levels of thallium we were able to detect are not the kind of levels you'd see in toxicity."
Hours before his death, three unidentified circular-shaped objects were found in his stomach via an X-ray
scan. It is thought these objects were almost certainly shadows caused by the presence of Prussian blue
, the treatment he had been given for thallium poisoning.
Following a deterioration of his condition on 20 November, Litvinenko was moved into intensive care. It was reported that his doctors had given him a 50/50 chance of survival over the three- to four-week period following the poisoning.
News reports at this stage kept an open mind on the cause of Litvinenko's condition, with Scotland Yard
considering whether the poison could have been self-administered.
reported that preliminary tests on the body of Alexander Litvinenko have indicated that he was poisoned with the radioactive isotope polonium-210
which was most likely inhaled or ingested, and traces of which were found at three London locations: in his Muswell Hill
home, at a hotel in Grosvenor Square
, and at the sushi restaurant where he had met Mario Scaramella
.
The UK's Health Protection Agency
confirmed that they were investigating the risks to people who have been in contact with him.
At a committed effective dose equivalent (CEDE) of 5.14 sievert
s per becquerel
(1.9 mrem/µCi) for ingested 210Po and a specific activity of 1.66 Bq/g (4.49 Ci/g) the amount of material required to produce a lethal dose of radiation poisoning
would be only about 0.12 micrograms (1.17g). The CEDE is normally used for expressing how likely internal exposure is to cause cancer, as the effective half life in humans of polonium is 37 days and the time between the poisoning and the death was short then the dose suffered by Alexander Litvinenko per unit of activity would have been lower than the CEDE. The biological halflife is 30 to 50 days in humans.
used X-ray
equipment to induce cancer
in political prisoner
s.
Similarly, some anti-Castro
activists claim that the Cuban secret police sometimes used radioactive isotopes to induce cancer in "adversaries they wished to destroy with as little notice as possible". In 1997, the Cuban expatriate columnist Carlos Alberto Montaner
called this method "the Bulgarian Treatment", after its alleged use by the Bulgaria
n secret police.
, Theodore Hall
, David Greenglass
, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Harry Gold
, Mordechai Vanunu
and Wen Ho Lee
.
s and is also covered by civil law
. In several cases radioactive materials have been transported incorrectly, leading to exposure (or potential exposure) of humans to radiation.
a defective gamma
radiography
set containing a iridium
-192 source was transported in a passenger bus as cargo. The gamma source was outside the shielding, and it irradiated some bus passengers. The dose suffered by the passengers was initially estimated as being between 20 mGy and 2.77 Gy (Gy = Gray (unit)
), but when the accident was reconstructed by placing dosimeter
s on seats before placing a similar radiography source in the cargo hold of the bus, the dose estimated by this experiment was no more than 500 mGy for the most exposed passenger.
As an indication of what these doses mean, the (lethal dose for 50% of subjects) in men is ~4 Gy in a single dose. However, doses can reach as high as 80 Gy if administered fractionally over several days (as in radiotherapy treatments where doses are often delivered in fractions of 1 or 2 Gy/day).
source was transported from Cookridge Hospital, Leeds
, England, to Sellafield
with defective shielding (a hole should have had a bolt-like plug screwed into it, but it was left open). As the gamma ray beam passing through the hole was directed from the package downwards into the ground, it is not thought that this event caused any injury or disease in either a human or an animal. This event was treated in a serious manner because the defense in depth type of protection for the source had been eroded. If the container had been tipped over in a road crash then a strong beam of gamma ray
s would have been directed in a direction where it would be likely to irradiate humans. The company responsible for the transport of the source, AEA Technology
plc, was fined £250,000 by a British court
.
(IAEA) shows "a persistent problem with the illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials, thefts, losses and other unauthorized activities".
From 1993 to 2006, the IAEA confirmed 1080 illicit trafficking incidents reported by participating countries. Of the 1080 confirmed incidents, 275 incidents involved unauthorized possession and related criminal activity, 332 incidents involved theft or loss of nuclear or other radioactive materials, 398 incidents involved other unauthorized activities, and in 75 incidents the reported information was not sufficient to determine the category of incident. Several hundred additional incidents have been reported in various open sources, but are not yet confirmed.
Quack
In the early 20th century a series of "medical" products which contained radioactive elements were marketed to the general public. These are included in this discussion of nuclear/radioactive crime because the sale and production of these products is now covered by criminal law. Because some perfectly good radioactive medical products exist, (such as iodine
-131 for the treatment of cancer), it is important to note that sale of products similar to those described below is criminal, as they are unlicensed medicines.
Radithor
, a well known patent medicine
/snake oil
, is possibly the best known example of radioactive quackery
. It consisted of triple distilled water containing at a minimum 1 microcurie
each of the radium
226 and 228 isotopes.
Radithor was manufactured from 1918 - 1928 by the Bailey Radium Laboratories, Inc., of East Orange, New Jersey
. The head of the laboratories was listed as Dr. William J. A. Bailey, not a medical doctor. It was advertised as "A Cure for the Living Dead" as well as "Perpetual Sunshine".
These radium elixirs were marketed similar to the way opiates were peddled to the masses with laudanum
an age earlier, and electrical cure-alls during the same time period such as the Prostate Warmer.
The eventual death of the socialite Eben Byers
from Radithor consumption and the associated radiation poisoning
led to the strengthening of the Food and Drug Administration's powers and the demise of most radiation quack cures.
By means of radiometric methods such as Gamma spectroscopy
(or a method using a chemical separation followed by an activity measurement with a non-energy-dispersive counter), it is possible to measure the concentrations of radioisotopes and to distinguish one from another. Below is a graph drawn from databooks of how the gamma spectra of three different isotopes which relate to this case using an energy-dispersive counter such as a germanium
semiconductor detector or a sodium iodide
crystal (doped with thallium) scintillation
counter. In this chart the line width of the spectral lines is about 1 keV and no noise is present, in real life background noise would be present and depending on the detector the line width would be larger so making it harder to make an identification and measurement of the isotope. In biological/medical work it is common to use the natural 40K present in all tissues/body fluids as a check of the equipment and as an internal standard.
Use of alpha emitters for murder/attempted murder
Two well known cases exist. In Germany, a man attempted to murder a woman with plutonium. In 2006, former KGBKGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
officer Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service ....
was killed in London by persons unknown (as of 2006) using the short-lived alpha emitter polonium-210.
Plutonium
In the German case, a man attempted to poison his ex-wife with plutonium stolen from WAK (Wiederaufbereitungsanlage KarlsruheKarlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
), a small scale reprocessing plant where he worked. He did not steal a large amount of plutonium, just some rags used for wiping surfaces and a small amount of liquid waste. The man was eventually sent to prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
. At least two people (besides the criminal) were contaminated by the plutonium. Two flats in Landau
Landau
Landau or Landau in der Pfalz is an autonomous city surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town , a long-standing cultural centre, and a market and shopping town, surrounded by vineyards and wine-growing villages of the...
in the Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
were contaminated, and had to be cleaned at a cost of two million euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
. Photographs of the case and details of other nuclear crimes have been presented by a worker at the Institute for Transuranium Elements
Institute for Transuranium Elements
The Institute for Transuranium Elements is a European Commission nuclear research institute in Karlsruhe, Germany. The ITU is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre , a Directorate-General of the European Commission . The ITU has about 300 staff...
.
A review of the forensic matters associated with stolen plutonium has been published.
The Litvinenko murder
During Litvinenko'sAlexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service ....
medical treatment more than one hypothesis existed as to the cause of Litvinenko's ill health. The first theory was that it was a normal case of thallium
Thallium
Thallium is a chemical element with the symbol Tl and atomic number 81. This soft gray poor metal resembles tin but discolors when exposed to air. The two chemists William Crookes and Claude-Auguste Lamy discovered thallium independently in 1861 by the newly developed method of flame spectroscopy...
poisoning. Later, it was suggested that a radioactive isotope of thallium had been used. The third and final hypothesis (following Litvinenko's death) was that he had been poisoned with a radioactive isotope of polonium
Polonium
Polonium is a chemical element with the symbol Po and atomic number 84, discovered in 1898 by Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie. A rare and highly radioactive element, polonium is chemically similar to bismuth and tellurium, and it occurs in uranium ores. Polonium has been studied for...
. All the evidence now indicates that Russian-made polonium was used to kill Litvinenko.
Radioactive thallium
It was then suggested that a radioactive isotopeIsotope
Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...
of thallium might have been used.
Thallium
Thallium
Thallium is a chemical element with the symbol Tl and atomic number 81. This soft gray poor metal resembles tin but discolors when exposed to air. The two chemists William Crookes and Claude-Auguste Lamy discovered thallium independently in 1861 by the newly developed method of flame spectroscopy...
, in large amount, can be a poison in itself, whether radioactive or not. The 201Tl isotope of thallium, in trace amounts, is used routinely around the world for medical procedures such as myocardial scintigraphy.
Dr. Amit Nathwani, one of Litvinenko's physicians, reported: "His symptoms are slightly odd for thallium poisoning, and the chemical levels of thallium we were able to detect are not the kind of levels you'd see in toxicity."
Hours before his death, three unidentified circular-shaped objects were found in his stomach via an X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
scan. It is thought these objects were almost certainly shadows caused by the presence of Prussian blue
Prussian blue
Prussian blue is a dark blue pigment with the idealized formula Fe718. Another name for the color Prussian blue is Berlin blue or, in painting, Parisian blue. Turnbull's blue is the same substance but is made from different reagents....
, the treatment he had been given for thallium poisoning.
Following a deterioration of his condition on 20 November, Litvinenko was moved into intensive care. It was reported that his doctors had given him a 50/50 chance of survival over the three- to four-week period following the poisoning.
News reports at this stage kept an open mind on the cause of Litvinenko's condition, with Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
considering whether the poison could have been self-administered.
Polonium-210
Shortly after his death, the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
reported that preliminary tests on the body of Alexander Litvinenko have indicated that he was poisoned with the radioactive isotope polonium-210
Polonium
Polonium is a chemical element with the symbol Po and atomic number 84, discovered in 1898 by Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie. A rare and highly radioactive element, polonium is chemically similar to bismuth and tellurium, and it occurs in uranium ores. Polonium has been studied for...
which was most likely inhaled or ingested, and traces of which were found at three London locations: in his Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill is a suburb of north London, mostly in the London Borough of Haringey. It is situated about north of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. Muswell Hill is in the N10 postal district and mostly in the Hornsey and Wood Green parliamentary constituency.- History :The...
home, at a hotel in Grosvenor Square
Grosvenor Square
Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in the exclusive Mayfair district of London, England. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from their surname, "Grosvenor".-History:...
, and at the sushi restaurant where he had met Mario Scaramella
Mario Scaramella
Mario Scaramella is an Italian lawyer, self-styled security consultant and nuclear waste expert who came to international prominence in 2006 in connection with the poisoning of the ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko...
.
The UK's Health Protection Agency
Health Protection Agency
The Health Protection Agency, or, in Welsh, Yr Asiantaeth Diogelu Iechyd is a statutory corporation. It is an independent UK organisation that was set up by the government in 2003 to protect the public from threats to their health from infectious diseases and environmental hazards...
confirmed that they were investigating the risks to people who have been in contact with him.
Details of the radiological threat posed by polonium-210
At a committed effective dose equivalent (CEDE) of 5.14 sievert
Sievert
The sievert is the International System of Units SI derived unit of dose equivalent radiation. It attempts to quantitatively evaluate the biological effects of ionizing radiation as opposed to just the absorbed dose of radiation energy, which is measured in gray...
s per becquerel
Becquerel
The becquerel is the SI-derived unit of radioactivity. One Bq is defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. The Bq unit is therefore equivalent to an inverse second, s−1...
(1.9 mrem/µCi) for ingested 210Po and a specific activity of 1.66 Bq/g (4.49 Ci/g) the amount of material required to produce a lethal dose of radiation poisoning
Radiation poisoning
Acute radiation syndrome also known as radiation poisoning, radiation sickness or radiation toxicity, is a constellation of health effects which occur within several months of exposure to high amounts of ionizing radiation...
would be only about 0.12 micrograms (1.17g). The CEDE is normally used for expressing how likely internal exposure is to cause cancer, as the effective half life in humans of polonium is 37 days and the time between the poisoning and the death was short then the dose suffered by Alexander Litvinenko per unit of activity would have been lower than the CEDE. The biological halflife is 30 to 50 days in humans.
Criminal use of X-ray equipment and other radiation technology by secret police
Some former East German dissidents claim that the StasiStasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
used X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
equipment to induce cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s.
Similarly, some anti-Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
activists claim that the Cuban secret police sometimes used radioactive isotopes to induce cancer in "adversaries they wished to destroy with as little notice as possible". In 1997, the Cuban expatriate columnist Carlos Alberto Montaner
Carlos Alberto Montaner
Carlos Alberto Montaner is an exiled Cuban author and journalist known for his more than 25 books and thousand of articles, including several novels, the last of which is La mujer del coronel, The colonel's wife. Some of his books are devoted to explain the true nature of the Cuban dictatorship,...
called this method "the Bulgarian Treatment", after its alleged use by the Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n secret police.
Atomic spies
A number of people have been arrested and convicted of spying with regards to nuclear matters. For example see the cases of Klaus FuchsKlaus Fuchs
Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who in 1950 was convicted of supplying information from the American, British and Canadian atomic bomb research to the USSR during and shortly after World War II...
, Theodore Hall
Theodore Hall
Theodore Alvin Hall was an American physicist and an atomic spy for the Soviet Union, who, during his work on US efforts to develop the first atomic bomb during World War II , gave a detailed description of the "Fat Man" plutonium bomb, and of processes for purifying plutonium, to Soviet...
, David Greenglass
David Greenglass
David Greenglass was an atomic spy for the Soviet Union who worked in the Manhattan project. He was the brother of Ethel Rosenberg.-Biography:...
, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Harry Gold
Harry Gold
Harry Gold was a laboratory chemist who was convicted of being the “courier” for a number of Soviet spy rings during the Manhattan Project.-Early life:Gold was born in Switzerland to poor Russian Jewish immigrants...
, Mordechai Vanunu
Mordechai Vanunu
Mordechai Vanunu ; is a former Israeli nuclear technician who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by a Mossad agent, where he was drugged and kidnapped by...
and Wen Ho Lee
Wen Ho Lee
Dr. Wen Ho Lee is a Taiwan-born Taiwanese American scientist who worked for the University of California at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He created simulations of nuclear explosions for the purposes of scientific inquiry, as well as for improving the safety and reliability of the US nuclear...
.
Improper transport
The transport of radioactive materials is controlled by a series of criminal lawCriminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
s and is also covered by civil law
Civil law (common law)
Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim...
. In several cases radioactive materials have been transported incorrectly, leading to exposure (or potential exposure) of humans to radiation.
The bus and the radiography set
Transport accidents can cause a release of radioactivity resulting in contamination or shielding to be damaged resulting in direct irradiation. In CochabambaCochabamba
Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the fourth largest city in Bolivia with an urban population of 608,276 and a metropolitan population of more than 1,000,000 people...
a defective gamma
Gamma ray
Gamma radiation, also known as gamma rays or hyphenated as gamma-rays and denoted as γ, is electromagnetic radiation of high frequency . Gamma rays are usually naturally produced on Earth by decay of high energy states in atomic nuclei...
radiography
Radiography
Radiography is the use of X-rays to view a non-uniformly composed material such as the human body. By using the physical properties of the ray an image can be developed which displays areas of different density and composition....
set containing a iridium
Iridium
Iridium is the chemical element with atomic number 77, and is represented by the symbol Ir. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum family, iridium is the second-densest element and is the most corrosion-resistant metal, even at temperatures as high as 2000 °C...
-192 source was transported in a passenger bus as cargo. The gamma source was outside the shielding, and it irradiated some bus passengers. The dose suffered by the passengers was initially estimated as being between 20 mGy and 2.77 Gy (Gy = Gray (unit)
Gray (unit)
The gray is the SI unit of absorbed radiation dose of ionizing radiation , and is defined as the absorption of one joule of ionizing radiation by one kilogram of matter ....
), but when the accident was reconstructed by placing dosimeter
Dosimeter
Dosimeters measure an individual's or an object'sexposure to something in the environment — particularly to a hazard inflicting cumulative impact over long periods of time, or over a lifetime...
s on seats before placing a similar radiography source in the cargo hold of the bus, the dose estimated by this experiment was no more than 500 mGy for the most exposed passenger.
As an indication of what these doses mean, the (lethal dose for 50% of subjects) in men is ~4 Gy in a single dose. However, doses can reach as high as 80 Gy if administered fractionally over several days (as in radiotherapy treatments where doses are often delivered in fractions of 1 or 2 Gy/day).
AEA technology and the medical source
March 11, 2002 – A 2.5 tonne radio therapy machine containing a 60Co gammaGamma ray
Gamma radiation, also known as gamma rays or hyphenated as gamma-rays and denoted as γ, is electromagnetic radiation of high frequency . Gamma rays are usually naturally produced on Earth by decay of high energy states in atomic nuclei...
source was transported from Cookridge Hospital, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, England, to Sellafield
Sellafield
Sellafield is a nuclear reprocessing site, close to the village of Seascale on the coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria, England. The site is served by Sellafield railway station. Sellafield is an off-shoot from the original nuclear reactor site at Windscale which is currently undergoing...
with defective shielding (a hole should have had a bolt-like plug screwed into it, but it was left open). As the gamma ray beam passing through the hole was directed from the package downwards into the ground, it is not thought that this event caused any injury or disease in either a human or an animal. This event was treated in a serious manner because the defense in depth type of protection for the source had been eroded. If the container had been tipped over in a road crash then a strong beam of gamma ray
Gamma ray
Gamma radiation, also known as gamma rays or hyphenated as gamma-rays and denoted as γ, is electromagnetic radiation of high frequency . Gamma rays are usually naturally produced on Earth by decay of high energy states in atomic nuclei...
s would have been directed in a direction where it would be likely to irradiate humans. The company responsible for the transport of the source, AEA Technology
AEA Technology
AEA Technology plc was formed in 1996 as the privatised offshoot of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. It is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index. Originally it consisted of divisions with expertise in a wide variety of areas, mostly the products of nuclear-related research...
plc, was fined £250,000 by a British court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
.
Trafficking in radioactive and nuclear materials
Information reported to the International Atomic Energy AgencyInternational Atomic Energy Agency
The International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957...
(IAEA) shows "a persistent problem with the illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials, thefts, losses and other unauthorized activities".
From 1993 to 2006, the IAEA confirmed 1080 illicit trafficking incidents reported by participating countries. Of the 1080 confirmed incidents, 275 incidents involved unauthorized possession and related criminal activity, 332 incidents involved theft or loss of nuclear or other radioactive materials, 398 incidents involved other unauthorized activities, and in 75 incidents the reported information was not sufficient to determine the category of incident. Several hundred additional incidents have been reported in various open sources, but are not yet confirmed.
QuackQuackeryQuackery is a derogatory term used to describe the promotion of unproven or fraudulent medical practices. Random House Dictionary describes a "quack" as a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or...
medicine
In the early 20th century a series of "medical" products which contained radioactive elements were marketed to the general public. These are included in this discussion of nuclear/radioactive crime because the sale and production of these products is now covered by criminal law. Because some perfectly good radioactive medical products exist, (such as iodineIodine
Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The name is pronounced , , or . The name is from the , meaning violet or purple, due to the color of elemental iodine vapor....
-131 for the treatment of cancer), it is important to note that sale of products similar to those described below is criminal, as they are unlicensed medicines.
Radithor
Radithor
Radithor was a patent medicine that is a well known example of radioactive quackery. It consisted of triple distilled water containing at a minimum each of the radium 226 and 228 isotopes.-History:...
, a well known patent medicine
Patent medicine
Patent medicine refers to medical compounds of questionable effectiveness sold under a variety of names and labels. The term "patent medicine" is somewhat of a misnomer because, in most cases, although many of the products were trademarked, they were never patented...
/snake oil
Snake oil
Snake oil is a topical preparation made from the Chinese Water Snake , which is used to treat joint pain. However, the most common usage of the phrase is as a derogatory term for quack medicine...
, is possibly the best known example of radioactive quackery
Radioactive quackery
Radioactive quackery refers to various products sold during the early 20th century, after the discovery of radioactivity, which promised radioactivity as a cure for various illnesses...
. It consisted of triple distilled water containing at a minimum 1 microcurie
Curie
The curie is a unit of radioactivity, defined asThis is roughly the activity of 1 gram of the radium isotope 226Ra, a substance studied by the pioneers of radiology, Marie and Pierre Curie, for whom the unit was named. In addition to the curie, activity can be measured using an SI derived unit,...
each of the radium
Radium
Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...
226 and 228 isotopes.
Radithor was manufactured from 1918 - 1928 by the Bailey Radium Laboratories, Inc., of East Orange, New Jersey
East Orange, New Jersey
East Orange is a city in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census the city's population 64,270, making it the state's 20th largest municipality, having dropped 5,554 residents from its population of 69,824 in the 2000 Census, when it was the state's 14th most...
. The head of the laboratories was listed as Dr. William J. A. Bailey, not a medical doctor. It was advertised as "A Cure for the Living Dead" as well as "Perpetual Sunshine".
These radium elixirs were marketed similar to the way opiates were peddled to the masses with laudanum
Laudanum
Laudanum , also known as Tincture of Opium, is an alcoholic herbal preparation containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight ....
an age earlier, and electrical cure-alls during the same time period such as the Prostate Warmer.
The eventual death of the socialite Eben Byers
Eben Byers
Eben McBurney Byers was a wealthy American socialite, athlete, and industrialist. Byers earned notoriety in the early 1930s when he died from radiation poisoning after consuming a popular patent medicine made from radium dissolved in water.-Biography:The son of industrialist Alexander Byers, Eben...
from Radithor consumption and the associated radiation poisoning
Radiation poisoning
Acute radiation syndrome also known as radiation poisoning, radiation sickness or radiation toxicity, is a constellation of health effects which occur within several months of exposure to high amounts of ionizing radiation...
led to the strengthening of the Food and Drug Administration's powers and the demise of most radiation quack cures.
Associated links
- Scientific American; August 1993; The Great Radium Scandal; by Roger Macklis
- Theodore Gray's Periodic Table of Elements
Nature of the radioactive source
Gamma spectroscopy
Gamma-ray spectroscopy is the quantitative study of the energy spectra of gamma-ray sources, both nuclear laboratory, geochemical, and astrophysical. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of electromagnetic radiation, being physically exactly like all other forms except for higher photon energy...
(or a method using a chemical separation followed by an activity measurement with a non-energy-dispersive counter), it is possible to measure the concentrations of radioisotopes and to distinguish one from another. Below is a graph drawn from databooks of how the gamma spectra of three different isotopes which relate to this case using an energy-dispersive counter such as a germanium
Germanium
Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard, grayish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon. The isolated element is a semiconductor, with an appearance most similar to elemental silicon....
semiconductor detector or a sodium iodide
Sodium iodide
Sodium iodide is a white, crystalline salt with chemical formula NaI used in radiation detection, treatment of iodine deficiency, and as a reactant in the Finkelstein reaction.-Uses:Sodium iodide is commonly used to treat and prevent iodine deficiency....
crystal (doped with thallium) scintillation
Scintillation
Scintillation can refer to:*Scintillation , atmospheric effects which influence astronomical observations*Interplanetary scintillation, fluctuations of radio waves caused by the solar wind...
counter. In this chart the line width of the spectral lines is about 1 keV and no noise is present, in real life background noise would be present and depending on the detector the line width would be larger so making it harder to make an identification and measurement of the isotope. In biological/medical work it is common to use the natural 40K present in all tissues/body fluids as a check of the equipment and as an internal standard.
See also
- Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents
- Radioactive scrap metalRadioactive scrap metalRadioactive scrap metal is the situation when radioactive material enters the metal recycling process and contaminates scrap metal.- Overview :...
- Radioactive wasteRadioactive wasteRadioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine...