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Pu-238 has a half-life of 87.7 years, making it a much longer-lasting source of energy than polonium-210, which was used in the 1959 RTG prototype and has a half-life of 138 days. Pu-238 exhibits high ...

In the UK, two Russian ex-secret service agents were targeted: Alexander Litvinenko fatally with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006, and Sergei Skripal with the toxic nerve agent Novichok in 2018.

She suspected the presence of an even more powerful element. MARIE-NOELLE HIMBERT: Here, Po, Polonium is the first element that they discovered. CHRIS PACKHAM: It’s remarkable, isn’t it?

Here is the equation for the alpha decay of radon-219 into polonium. Beta decay involves the conversion of a down quark to an up quark. This changes a neutron into a proton plus an electron.

In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko - an ex-Russian intelligence officer who became a Kremlin critic and fled to the UK - died after his tea was poisoned by radioactive polonium-210. More recently ...