Are Depleted Uranium Munitions 'Weapons Of Choice' Or HumanTimebombs?

Internet Blog ^ | 25 October 2004 | Robert Drobot

[Robert Drobot]

".....The AP also issued an update on the Pentagon’s response to a study which concluded, "powerful antibiotics did nothing to relieve the chronic health problems reported by Gulf War veterans".

Stephen L. Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center in Silver Spring, Md said, this confirms information that has already been out there,......We know that we can stop looking at this and we can focus research on other areas that might prove fruitful.

Joseph F. Collins, a VA Maryland Healthcare System researcher as said, "it will be a long time, if ever, before the cause of Gulf War illness is identified."

The initial AP story concluded:

The study was done by the Department of Veterans Affairs and was published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers have found that veterans of the Persian Gulf war in 1990 and 1991 are more likely to suffer from a range of chronic symptoms......memory and thinking problems, debilitating fatigue, severe muscle and joint pain, depression, anxiety, insomnia, headaches and rashes.

Theories.....include stress, chemical or biological weapons.....depleted-uranium munitions, and vaccinations for anthrax and.....biological weapons. (Writer’s emphasis.)

This.....was the only information on the subject America was permitted to see.

The second October 19th news story - refused by every American.....media source - was prepared in Italy.

The headline read, "DEPLETED URANIUM: OBSERVATORY LAMENTS DENIAL ( 119 dead soldiers )". The first sentence may have been the reason for the censorship of this story from the American people:

According to the Italian Military Health Observatory a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium.

Ed. Note: An inconsistency in the number total is apparent, but doesn’t detract from the focus of the story. )

[Robert Drobot]

Comment: As a reader of internet information resources offered by a variety of web sites for that specific purpose, I’m seriously concerned about the opposite conclusions reached by the government of Italy and the government of the United States about the use and residual effect of depleted uranium munitions used extensively in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Iraq, as well as the alleged safe use depleted uranium in the manufacturing of American consumer and hospital products.

Each of the stories in question were placed on the internet (coincidentally? ) October 19, 2004.

I’m presenting my concerns here in the hope that internet users may arrive at some measure of clarity regarding the use, and residual effects, of depleted uranium munitions, as well as its alleged safe use in the manufacturing of goods used in the civilian sector.

[Nateman]

Frankly I'm mad that something with the potential value of so much energy is being wasted on such trivial uses. If you expose U-238 to a neutron flux it will become Pu-239. This is great fuel for reactors. One kilogram is equivalent to about 22 million kilowatt hours of heat energy.We could be powering up cities and  yet thanks to a bunch of foolish environmentalists this vast energy resource is being wasted.

[PreciousLiberty]

Here's some information on depleted uranium exposure. You may find these paragraphs interesting:

Very little literature directly addresses DU's health effects. However, extensive material deals with the effects of natural uranium, which is relevant to assessing DU's effects. Chemically, DU has the same properties as natural uranium. Radiologically, DU emits types of radiation similar to natural uranium's, but DU is 40% less radioactive than natural uranium.

Uranium is all around us. A heavy metal similar to tungsten and lead, it occurs in soils in typical concentrations of a few parts per million (equivalent to about half a teaspoon of uranium in a typical 8-cubic yard dump truck-load of dirt). The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) estimates there are typically 4 tons of uranium in 1 square mile of soil 1 foot deep[13] and that we add 180 metric tons (about 198 US tons) of uranium decay products to US agricultural lands each year due to the trace amounts of uranium in phosphate fertilizer.[14] We all take in uranium every day from the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the foods we eat. On average, every day each of us takes in 1.9 micrograms (about two-millionths of a gram) of uranium from food and water and inhales a very small fraction (7 x 10-3 or 0.007) of a microgram.

Note that the uranium we're normally exposed to is 40% more radioactive than DU. It does seem to me that those who might be exposed should wear a breathing filter...in the U.S. army they would mainly be those who ventured near armored vehicles hit by American DU rounds.

Hope it was interesting...

[PreciousLiberty]

Frankly I'm mad that something with the potential value of so much energy is being wasted on such trivial uses. If you expose U-238 to a neutron flux it will become Pu-239. This is great fuel for reactors. One kilogram is equivalent to about 22 million kilowatt hours of heat energy.We could be powering up cities and yet thanks to a bunch of foolish environmentalists this vast energy resource is being wasted.

I agree. In fact, we should be making many new pebble-bed nuclear reactors to replace coal-fired power plants. It would do a lot for air quality and reduce health problems (not to mention helping with greenhouse gases).

Try telling that to the "environmentalists" though... ;-)

[agere_contra]

Agreed.

Interesting point: disasters involving coal power (e.g. Aberfan) have killed more people than disasters involving nuclear power (Chernobyl).

[Wonder Warthog]

"I’m presenting my concerns here in the hope that internet users may arrive at some measure of clarity regarding the use, and residual effects, of depleted uranium munitions, as well as its alleged safe use in the manufacturing of goods used in the civilian sector."

The mysterious deleterious effects of depleted uranium are URBAN LEGEND, promulgated by anti-nuke eco-fanatics. The effects of uranium exposure are VERY well known, and do not include ANY of the symptoms supposedly exhibited by sufferers of the "Gulf War syndrome".

[Truth666]

"An inconsistency in the number total is apparent"
Where does that come from ? Three were no inconsistencies in the original press agency story

[Nateman]

Consider this, at 8 cents per kilowatt hour, a typical rate, one kilogram of plutonium if it could be
converted to pure electrical energy would be worth 1.76 million dollars. (.08$ X 22,000,000 =
1,760,000$) Even at the typical heat engine efficiency of 20% that's still more than 300,000$ in
energy per kilogram!( That's worth about 25 times more than it's wieght in gold!) Only
environmentalist wackos in conjunction with the deadening hand of government could make such a
profit potential into such a dismal failure.

[PreciousLiberty]

Consider this, at 8 cents per kilowatt hour, a typical rate, one kilogram of plutonium if it could be converted to pure electrical energy would be worth 1.76 million dollars. (.08$ X 22,000,000 = 1,760,000$) Even at the typical heat engine efficiency of 20% that's still more than 300,000$ in energy per kilogram!( That's worth about 25 times more than it's wieght in gold!)

I suspect if nuclear power were widely adopted using new technology, the cost per kilowatt would fall by at least 50%.

Still, Pu would be quite valuable for something that's essentially a free by-product... ;-)

[punster]

The permissible body burden of U-238 (depleted uranium) is 0.04 microcuries, which is about 120 milligrams. The level that can be tolerated is probably about 10 times as much. These values are based on the study of the radium dial painters.

My opinion is, the chemical toxicity of depleted uranium does outweigh the radiological hazard.

The target organs for uranium are the kidneys and bone.

[TalonDJ]

Yeah and in Afghanistan many Taliban also died due to exposure to depleted uranium. From what I hear exposure usually causes people to disperse themselves over a large area.

[StoneFury]

I would much rather see enriched uranium being fired at our enemies.

[Atlantic Friend]

I know I won't be the only one to do this, but...it's great somebody finally adresses the lethal effect of Democratic Undergound. Oh, wait....

[edchambers]

Anyone with a "Basic Training" understanding of ,Biological and Chemical warfare could tell you that the symptoms of Gulf War Veterans Syndrome are much more likely from exposure to biological and chemical weapons than anything else.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Still, Pu would be quite valuable for something that's essentially a free by-product... ;-)"

Well, not "quite" free. To use it, the Pu has to be separated from the old fuel rods, and re-converted into new fuel rods (or pellets or whatever form your favorite reactor technology uses). This is necessary to remove the highly radioactive fission products formed during the burning of the U-235. These have to be removed as some of them have high neutron absorption cross sections (can soak up lots of neutrons) and can decrease the efficiency of the fission process.

[Robert Drobot]

The Italian government had been stonewalling the depleted uranium radiation argument, and finally admitted it was the factor in the death of its military personnel.

Should we deny that reality as well?

[edchambers]

Depleted uranium has been in use for nearly 20 yrs now,it is used mostly by tankers for armor piercing rounds.This is a pretty big branch of the Army.If indeed it were a factor I imagine we would have heard allot more about it by now.I was originally commenting on the Gulf War Veterans Syndrome this was a big deal around the same time I got out of the Army and I knew allot of these guys.The wide variety of symptoms is much more likely a combination of exposure to chem/bio weapons,petroleum fumes and third world parasites.

[Robert Drobot]

You might like to look at Europe's take on depleted uranium munitions. Seems like a bunch of countries are doing tests on their soldiers that we are not doing to our own?!?!?!

Italy demands answers on DU

[Robert Drobot]

......doing on our own?!?!?!

[Robert Drobot]

BUMP!