Polonium years) can be made through the alpha, proton, or deuteron bombardment of lead or bismuth in a cyclotron. Tentatively called "radium F", polonium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, and was named after Marie Curie's native land of Poland (). Poland at the time was under Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian partition, and did not exist as an independent country. It was Curie's hope that naming the element after her native land would publicize its lack of independence. Polonium may be the first element named to highlight a political controversy. This element was the first one discovered by
Modulated neutron initiator particle bombardment, the beryllium atoms emit neutrons at a rate of about 1 neutron each 5–10 nanoseconds (See Beryllium#Nuclear properties). These neutrons trigger the chain reaction in the compressed supercritical plutonium. Placing the polonium layer between two large masses of beryllium ensures contact of the metals even if the shock wave turbulence performs poorly. The 50 curies of polonium generated about 0.1 watts of decay heat, noticeably warming the small sphere. The grooves in the inner surface of the shell shaped the shock wave into jets by the Munroe effect, similar to a shaped charge, for fast and thorough mixing