From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist@KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] New, improved, astatine-free!
Date: Fri,  6 Feb 2015 23:13:27 -0500 (EST)
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist@KeithLynch.net>

Also in the paper recently, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel finally made a
true statement.  He was quoted by the Washington Post as boasting that
the new safer Metro power cables contain no astatine.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metro-rushes-to-install-low-smoke-power-cables-after-lenfant-plaza-incident/2015/01/31/89979118-a85b-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html

If the old ones contained it, that would certainly explain Metro's
recent smoke disaster.  As Wikipedia puts it:

  Elemental astatine has never been viewed, because a mass large
  enough to be seen (by the naked human eye) would be immediately
  vaporized by the heat generated by its own radioactivity.

Note that the new cables are made by "Draka."  As a fan of
S.M. Stirling's novels, I have a bad feeling about this. :-)