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Depleted uranium’s radioactive dust – the forgotten pollutant

The problem is, when DU armor piercing projectiles penetrate their targets, they become incendiary spewing radioactive dust

The Toxic Legacy of Depleted Uranium Weapons 11-26-2012, EcoWatch, By Paul E McGinniss “………  how many of us know about the current manufacturing and active use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons? DU (Uranium 238) is a radioactive waste by-product of the uranium enrichment process. It results from making fuel for nuclear reactors and the manufacturing of nuclear weapons.

In a frightening adaptation of the “Cradle to Cradle” philosophy in manufacturing, which seeks to use waste in the manufacturing process to create other “useful” products, militaries around the world have come up with the “brilliant” idea of taking DU and making “conventional” weapons with it.

According to BanDepletedUranium.org, approximately 20 countries are thought to have DU weapons in their arsenals. Nations known to have produced these weapons include UK, U.S., France, Russia, China and Pakistan.
DU is well liked by armed forces because it is twice as dense as lead
and when fused with metal alloys it can be made into highly effective
armor piercing weapons such as the M242 gun mounted on the U.S. Army’s
Bradley Fighting Vehicle. DU is also used in armor plating to protect
vehicles such as the U.S. Army’s Abrams Tank.
DU ordnance has been employed in the 1991 Gulf War and in conflicts in
Bosnia, Serbia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
In a twisted way, use of DU makes perfect sense. After all, DU is
plentiful, and with so much radioactive waste stored around the globe,
and no safe place to store it, DU is a ready and cheap source of
material for the ordnance of war.
The problem is, when DU armor piercing projectiles penetrate their targets, they become incendiary spewing radioactive dust……
http://ecowatch.org/2012/toxic-legacy-of-depleted-uranium/

November 28, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | depleted uranium, Reference, Uranium, wastes