Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method for preparing alpha sources of polonium, comprising:providing a sample of polonium in a solution;introducing a controlled amount of sulfide and a controlled amount of copper for forming an insoluble sulfide salt in the solution, in order to co-precipitate polonium from the solution; andfiltering out the precipitates that contain the alpha sources of polonium. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlled amount of copper is in the range of about 1 μg to about 100 μg. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the controlled amount of copper is in the range of about 30 μg to about 70 μg. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the controlled amount of copper is about 50 μg. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein there is a time period of at least about 10 min after introducing the sulfide and the copper, before filtering out the precipitates. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the time period is no more than about 3 hours. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the polonium is provided in an acidic solution. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the solution comprises hydrochloric acid. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the hydrochloric acid is in the solution at a concentration in the range of about 0.01 M to about 2 M. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the hydrochloric acid has a concentration in the range of about 0.1 M to about 1 M. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the hydrochloric acid has a concentration of about 1 M. 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the polonium is provided in a controlled amount of solution that is in the range of about 5 mL to about 20 mL. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the controlled amount of solution is about 10 mL. 14. The method of claim 1, wherein filtering out the precipitates comprises filtering the sample of polonium using a vacuum box. 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising preparing multiple alpha sources from multiple samples of polonium in parallel, using the vacuum box. 16. The method of claim 1, further comprising drying the precipitates after the filtering and mounting the precipitates on a disc for counting by alpha spectrometry.