Report: Swiss scientists find at least 18 times normal levels of Polonium in Arafat's Bones

[DetlefK]

11. You misunderstood. They aren't turning Arafat into Hulk. The other way round.

Each radioactive element has a distinct chain of decay-products. Many of those emit gamma-radiation, the frequency depending on the radioactive nucleus. By measuring the gamma-radiation of the samples, they could deduce which radio-active elements are abundant in the sample. If they are members of the decay-chain of polonium, then there was polonium in the samples.
But I don't know haw fast or reliable that method is.

Secondary Ion-Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) is pretty fast:
Prepare sample: 1 day.
Transfer into vacuum-chamber: A few hours.
Start digging (with a focused ion-beam) and measure what comes out: A few hours.
Preliminary, crappy results after two days. Better results if you prepare the sample more carefully and measure longer (for better statistics).