Yevgeny Velikhov, the director of Russia's Kurchatov nuclear research institute, refuted earlier Monday that the Po-210 allegedly used to poison a former Russian spy in London could have come from Russia, but said that the uranium by-product can be easily obtained in medical facilities in Europe.
The academician said: "I know that it [polonium-210] is widely used for various purposes, particularly in the space industry. And I also know an unpleasant story - if you want to obtain the radioactive isotope, you can simply go to a hospital in Vienna and take it from a medicine cabinet."
But a spokesperson for the Austrian Health Ministry said that polonium-210 is not currently used for treatment in specialized or any other clinics in the country.
Last Friday the UK Health Protection Agency reported traces of a fatal dose of Po-210 in the body of Russian ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died after spending three weeks in a London hospital. Western media circulated rumors that the isotope could have been brought to the UK from Russia.
Litvinenko, who defected to the UK in 2000 and was a close associate of Russia's fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky, was reportedly poisoned in sushi restaurant Itsu on November 1. Traces of radiation were detected in the restaurant, in the Millennium hotel in central London which Litvinenko visited on the same day, and in his apartment in the north of the capital.
