Matthew Ghio writes: (after a long absence from the list?--welcome back)
Polonium is primarilly an alpha emitter. It would work as part of a neutron source, but it is not a particularily good choice because its half-life is only 138.4 days (polonium-210). This makes it expensive to obtain, and impractical to store.
When we needed sources of alpha particles, we cracked open smoke detectors and took out the Americium sources. Later, we found a supplier of "anti-static" modules, for use in air guns used to clean wafers, each containing 10 milliCuries (!!) of Po-210. We called this our "Kong source." Nothing to do with crypto, except that the alphas scrambled data in our chips. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."