see this is why i’m glad i have such smart listeners. Thanks for the info. After posting the show and listening back to it I really wasn’t sure if the poison was U238 or not. So its Polonium 210!

U-238 is a naturally occurring uranium isotope that is commonly used as the base for refining nuclear fuels. While it is certainly radioactive, it is not the nasty stuff that the Russian mafia uses for executions.

That nasty bugger is polonium 210 (Po-210). It’s a pretty heavy alpha particle emitter, which means it’s relatively safe to handle externally (alpha particles can be stopped by our skin’s epidermal layer, or a sheet of paper), but it wreaks absolute havoc on our internal organs if it is ingested.

Hooray for chemistry!