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What is depleted uranium and what does it do to the environment?
 A
waste product of nuclear weapon and reactor fuel production, depleted
uranium (DU) is an extremely dense metal sought after for its armor
piercing and ballast capabilities. Due to these properties and its
relatively high availability, the United States has favored its use
in ammunition.
But as a radioactive byproduct of the nuclear industry, the use of
DU has also been extremely controversial. Though our government dismisses
it, the suggestion has been made that American soldiers and foreign
civilians alike are being made ill from this type of munitions. In
a lot of ways, DU has become today's Agent Orange.
The first heavy use of DU to gain much notice was in Bosnia, where
the US fired approximately 10,800 rounds between 1994 and '95. Prior
to that, however, was the Gulf War, where it's estimated between 10
to 20 times that much DU was used. NATO also fired over 31,000 rounds
of DU munitions during the war in Kosovo. Dust from exploded DU munitions
has been found floating in the air in the former Yugoslavia more than
two years after the shooting and bombing there have ended, and the
United Nations now warns that groundwater is in danger of contamination
in several areas in the region. Perhaps even more frightening, a study
of Canadian Persian Gulf veterans has shown that uranium is still
being passed in their urine more than ten years after the end of that
war.
DU has caused major controversy in Europe after a number of soldiers
exposed to it in the Balkans have developed cancer. Italy, Germany,
Greece, the Netherlands and Norway have gone so far as to call for
a moratorium on the use of DU munitions. The suggestion that DU is
linked to the mysterious Gulf War Syndrome affecting many veterans
has also been made, but has not generated as much interest here in
the United States.
In places where DU is used, the threat to civilian populations and
the long-term health of the environment is severe. Uranium-238, the
primary isotope found in depleted uranium, has a radioactive half-life
of 4.5 billion years. Other trace elements found in DU munitions decay
into Plutonium-239, which has a half-life of 24,110 years and has
been called "the most radioactive substance known." In Iraq, incidents
of cancer have increased 12-fold in the ten years since the bombing
there began.
Right now, depleted uranium munitions are still a major part of the
US arsenal. They are still being used, and will likely continue to
be used until public pressure finally puts an end to it. The US government
still has not admitted the full effects of Agent Orange thirty years
since the end of the Vietnam War. When it comes to weapons like DU,
our government refuses to adopt the precautionary principle, thus
threatening the lives of American soldiers and foreign civilians simply
for the sake of convenience.
What do you want to know about? Send your environmental questions
to "Tell Me"
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