Depleted Uranium

[problem_child]

I read in a quoted report by the World Health Organization, that the cancer rate in Iraq after the 1990 Gulf War had leapt up to many times the cancer rate before the war, that fifty percent of the Iraqi people had people close to them affected by cancer or leukemia.

Considering DU has also been used in Kosovo and Serbia, Afghanistan, Bosnia- and considering the last USUK campaign against Iraq was embarked on because of weapons of mass destruction, what are your thoughts on this, Worthy of discussion?

[CerberusIV]

There are a lot of carcinogens around, not just DU. Burning crude oil produces quite a few nasty chemicals for a start.

Until someone produces more compelling evidence of direct links to DU then it is hard to be sure where to point the finger of blame.

[connorkimbro]

you also can't say whether or not that whatever the iraqis used might have been the cause of it.

from what i remember of my training, DU doesn't hurt people under normal conditions. we ride around in tanks with DU armor, and our guys aren't affected. I think if the tank were attacked, and it was blown up and on fire, then the DU might become dangerous at that point, but HOW many tanks would have had to be blown up to affect the entire iraqi population and cause a 50% increase in cancer rates? not NEARLY as many as were blown up. (were any blown up at all? i can't remember)

again, i may be remembering a bit incorrectly, but i do know that normally, DU is not dangerous.

edit, i misquoted the statistics you stated, but can't be bothered to correct them. anyway, my point still stands i think. . .

[problem_child]

Still, in the UK, DU firing ranges are all far from urban centres, (out in the Shetland Isles and so on) recently people have been making lots of paniky noises about terrorists setting off 'dirty bombs' in cities. Don't you think a shell containing a pleted uranium core can be considered a dirty bomb?

However I guess comparative figures from Kosovo and Afghanistan would be far more decisive, your point about burning oil-wells in Iraq is well taken.

Personally I'd have serious reservations about me or my children having to breath in the DU dust left lying around in the wreckage of schools, hospitals and media-stations after a few weeks of targeted boming.

[connorkimbro]

i don't believe the ammunition that we use has any DU in it. . . i may be wrong, but i don't think so.

besides, almost ANY firing range is gonna be far from urban centers.

[problem_child]

Ah, that's good then (I mean that) The UK still uses it.

[BeBMan]

I think A10 tank killers fire DU shells from their gatling guns....

Not sure about other weapons.

[connorkimbro]

perhaps armor piercing round may have DU in it, but we wouldn't use armor piercing rounds against things that don't have armor, of course.

edit: yes, a tank killer may use them, as they're targeting things that have armor.

[problem_child]

But like cluster-bombs, effects of such armaments can persist long after the exciting and dramatic duel between warriors is over. What happens when the war is past and people return to the fields and cities where such altercations took place? They're breathing and eating the stuff... thus my question. I understand that militaries will always want more powerful and effective weapons, but where is the line drawn? Perhaps it's a matter of who uses what, rather then what is used by whoever.

[RGBVideo]

Personally I'd have serious reservations about me or my children having to breath in the DU dust left lying around in the wreckage of schools, hospitals and media-stations after a few weeks of targeted boming.

Depleted Uranium shells emit less radiation than the ground in here. It's called 'depleted' for a reason.

[problem_child]

'the ground in here', the ground in where? Do you mean granite?

[RGBVideo]

'the ground in here', the ground in where?

Here, as in about 60 degrees northern, almost exactly 25 degrees eastern.

Do you mean granite?

When I say 'ground', I mean 'ground'. Including the granite in it, yes.

EDIT: "Soil" would be another good word for this instance, English is not my native language so some of my sentences may sound quite confusing, sorry about that.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by connorkimbro
i don't believe the ammunition that we use has any DU in it. . . i may be wrong, but i don't think so

Tank shells do for sure. Arty shells too, probably.

It has a very high specific gravity, and is better than lead for some other reasons.

DU is uranium from which almost all the U235 originally present in uranium ore has been removed. This lowers its radioactivity to something considered acceptable. However, I'm pretty sure this calculation only includes dose from being around some DU, not ingestion of DU into a person's body (i.e. through the water supply). Given that heavy metals have been found to remain in people's bodies for ages, that it is still a low-level source of some pretty nasty forms of radiation and the fact that depleted or not it remains a chemical toxin, and you get the idea. There's no direct, firm link yet established between high levels of DU in a person's bloodstream (which was definitely present in some of the civilian population of Iraq after GW1, as well as in US military personnel involved in the war) and leukemia rates (or anything else), but I wouldn't drink the water or eat the food taken from ground in which DU shells have been used. Some people don't get that choice, unfortunately.

[RGBVideo]

DU is uranium from which almost all the U235 originally present in uranium ore has been removed.

I thought that U-238 ore is mainly used, because it's cheaper?

It has a very high specific gravity, and is better than lead for some other reasons.

Ya, quite dense considering the relatively low price of it, isn't it?

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Tuomerehu

I thought that U-238 ore is mainly used, because it's cheaper?

There is no such thing as "U-238 ore". Uranium ore consists of a mix of U-238 and U-235. IIRC, certain mining sites have higher or lower concentrations of U-235 in their raw ore, but all still have a significant amount (which is pretty much determined by the age of the Earth). Removing (most) of the U-235 is where the word "depleted" comes from.