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| | Depleted uranium not radioactive | Adder - 12.04.2004 11:56
For clarity, depleted uranium is a byproduct of the enrichtment proces of natural uranium. Enriched uranium is used in nuclear reactors, but depleted uranium has no use except for the military (since the Gulf War). Depleted uranium has a half-life of more then 4-billion years what effectively means that is almost *not* radioactive. In that sense it is not a health issue. *But* when used in military ammonition, on impact the uranium will vaporize and create highly toxic uraniumoxides which leads to the diseases recently named the "Gulf War Syndrome".
Transporting depleted uranium is dangerous in the sense that it is highly toxic when released (it is a very heavy metal like lead), not because it is radioactive as is with plutonium.
Transport to Russia is mainly for just storing the waste (because there is little use for it).
Depleted uranium row rages
 http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2001/433/433p25.htm
| | More information | Wise - 12.04.2004 13:46
For more information regarding:
http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium
"Depleted uranium from European uranium enricher Urenco (with plants operating in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Germany) and others is now being enriched in Russia. The centrifuge enrichment plant of Minatom's Ural Electrochemical Integrated Plant (UEChK, formerly Sverdlovsk-44) at Novouralsk near Ekaterinburg is enriching tails for Urenco. Minatom, while further depleting ("stripping") Urenco's depleted uranium, produces uranium of natural contents (0.71%) in uranium-235. It thus re-enriches or upgrades the tails to natural uranium-235 grade. This product is then delivered back to Urenco for further enrichment to reactor grade. In 1996 alone, more than 6,000 metric tonnes of tails were upgraded."
http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/dhap991.html
 Website: http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium
| | Radioactive for 4.5 billion years? | Diet Simon - 12.04.2004 15:51
At http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/metal_leftbooks.htm is an article "WHAT IS DEPLETED URANIUM? READ METAL OF DISHONOR TO SEE WHAT IS BEHIND THE HEADLINES" which I quote in my article a nd which says: "Depleted uranium is a waste product of the process that produces enriched uranium for use in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants. It is both toxic and radioactive. With its half-life of 4.5 billion years, the radioactivity of depleted uranium effectively lasts forever." I am no scientist, so I don't know what is correct. Diet Simon
| | NOT radioactive for 4,5 billion year | adder - 13.04.2004 20:59
OK. A really short lesson of natural science about radioactive material:
Matter is build out of atoms. Some atoms are unstable. When such an atom decays to a more stable form it 'looses' energy in the form of radiation (fotons, alpha or beta particles). Scientists use a measure for how quick some type of matter decays which they call half-life. This value tells you how long it takes before half of this type of matter decays to a more stable not-radioactive form. The lower this value the quicker the matter decays and the more radiation is released. Depleted uranium has a half-life of 4,5 billion years what effectively means that it takes 4,5 billion years to make half of the material decays to a more stable form. Thats really long, and that means there will be really low levels of radiation, probably almost nothing. The article you reference to is correct in the statement that the material stays radioactive for a really long time. But that makes it almost not dangerous in radioactive terms.
Keep in mind that this depleted uranium is used as ammonition, if it really was that radioactive the army couldnt use it. Soldiers would get contaminated everytime that handled a gun. Thatswhy the focus is on the toxic side, because every time on impact such a bullet vaporises and you are left with a highly toxic little dust cloud. In this form the radiation, even how little it is, really toxic when inhaled. But for the most part it is the vaporised heavy metal (compare for example with lead) which is really toxic when inhaled. This is what causes all the problems (cancer etc).
Ok. enuf said :) .. it is just that I don't agree with what the sentence in that article where you reference to was suggesting, namely that transporting this stuff is dangerous because of the radioactivety like the plutonium transports in germany. But plutonium is strongly radioactive (it has a half-life of 24000 years)! So depleted uranium is dangerous primarily because of the toxic side when inhaled. Transporting this stuff is then also dangerous, in a worstcase scenario an airplane could crash into the train (for example).
And uranium doesnt come out of nowhere, in africa there are tons of it are digged up out of the earth which are even more radioactive then depleted uranium. Our dear mother earth has these toxic materials herself.
Concluding: I find it important that we now the facts we are acting on! I recommend reading the article from WISE (anti-nuclear energy group)...
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