Isotope Linked to Death Available Online

Picture shows the Polonium Polish restaurant in Sheffield, 160 miles (260 kilometers) north of London Friday Dec. 1, 2006, which has seen an ironic upturn in trade in the days since news broke that a former Russian spy died of poisoning from radioactive Polonium 210 in London. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Dec 2, 6:27 AM (ET)By MARK EVANS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - No luck shopping for that hard-to-buy-for science hobbyist in the family? The rare isotope suspected to have felled former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko is surprisingly easy to buy - in fact, for $69, it's a mouse click away.

The polonium-210 you can get online from Sandia Park, N.M.-based United Nuclear is available to the general public in 0.1 microcurie units, an invisibly tiny amount that's exempt from federal licensing restrictions, according the company's Web site.

In a note on the site, United Nuclear founder Bob Lazar says it's not a practical poison: You'd need 15,000 orders from him, more than $1 million worth, to potentially harm anyone, and each order comes electroplated on the inside of the eye of a needle. >>>cont

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