How can a teen-age mad scientist create polonium?

Start with present day "maker" culture. People, including youngsters, play with microcontrollers and machine parts, with synergistic technology like 3D printing, shoebox-sized robotic milling machines powered by a Dremel tool, automated jigs that cut plywood into complex shapes, etc.

In a slightly different reality there exists a "dark" side of this culture. Maybe this is where the ApocalypseBuilding site exists.

One group of Dark Makers is inspired by SciFi stories from the 1940's and '50's where society is excited about nuclear technology and all the many things that can be done with pure isotopes, synthetic elements, and radioactive processes. The Farnsworth Fusor is an inspiration: real alchemy (and a switchable neutron source) that could be built with 1930's technology! By the late 1980's it was possible for a kid to build a working replica of the first "atom smashers" and other period equipment, as a science fair project.

Look at how model rocketry hobbiests have "” more cheaply and easily "” reproduced the early days of rocketry that was performed by world powers on a military budget. (It's fun to see the "same footage" as the period newsreels in high-def, acting like it's a breakthrough or something. The breakthrough is in price and availability, not the technology per se.)

So, some (mostly secretive) hobby infrastructure has grown up around repeating the nuclear experimentation. This should be real present or near-future technology, with breakthroughs or handwaving fictional changes only were necessary for your Answer.

By what mechanism would this hobbiest create a small amount of polonium? What would the maker-culture versions of the equipment be like?

Edit: If re-creating the historical methods and tecniques, how would it be easier/different/approachable with modern tech and maker culture? What kinds of devices could be built now along the lines of 3D printers and Raspberry Pis?

posted about 7 years ago

JDługosz‭

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