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James Lovelock Provides "Fantasy" Story Line – Russian Oil and Gas Behind Litvinenko Murder by Polonium

February 15, 2009 By Rod Adams

In the Sunday, February 15, 2009 edition of TimesOnline (London), James Lovelock leads off a column supportive of nuclear power with a hypothetical story line. His hypothesis, nearly as interesting and potentially as conception altering as his famous Gaia theory, is that creative writers missed an opportunity for a believable thriller by failing to explore the possibility that Russian oil and gas interests purposefully selected polonium as the poison for killing Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

Lovelock sets up the following with imagining a scene from a movie set in Moscow; I imagine a large conference table with men in dark suits having a discussion:

Someone says: “You realise, do you, that a poisonous dose of polonium210 will cost about $10m? Why not use ricin – we know that that’s a reliable poison and a lot less visible to the media? Moreover, it will cost less than $1.”

Another bureaucrat adds: “Yes, and to make the polonium we have to seek time on a reactor which is already fully occupied with other important tasks.”

At which a senior manager intervenes. “Gentlemen,” he says, “the purpose of this action is not merely to punish a traitor – and that alone needs visibility and media amplification – but more importantly to keep the West frightened of all things nuclear. Our future as a world power depends on our ability to make them wholly dependent on us for their supply of oil and gas; their use of nuclear energy would free them of this dependency and we could lose our ability to make the world go the way we wish. Ten million dollars is nothing in that cause.”

Perhaps I am not the only one who believes that a major portion of the anti-nuclear movement is really a FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) spreading effort by the coal, oil, and gas interests around the world.

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About Rod Adams

Rod Adams is Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital, a venture fund that invests in advanced nuclear, which provides affordable access to this clean energy sector to pronuclear and impact investors. Rod, a former submarine Engineer Officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., which was one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures, is an atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. He has engaged in technical, strategic, political, historic and financial analysis of the nuclear industry, its technology, regulation, and policies for several decades through Atomic Insights, both as its primary blogger and as host of The Atomic Show Podcast. Please click here to subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed. To join Rod's pronuclear network and receive his occasional newsletter, click here.

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