Airstrip One

Depleted Uranium

This is from the antiwar.com club, in response to a query about depleted uranium:

Yes, it will make you sick, John, just not from your dentist's equipment.

Here is what I have learned.

Uranium comes in 3 isotopes, U-234, U-235, and U-238. U-234 and U-235 are both radioactive and unstable, will undergo beta and alpha decay and turn into other elements, and both occur in very small percentage naturally. U-238 is not radioactive and is stable.

All uranium comes with some percentage of U-234 and U-235, U-234 being even small percentage than U-235.

Enriched Uranium is high in U-235 and highly radioactive. The richness of Uranium is graded for different uses, nuclear reactor, nuclear weapons, etc.

When Uranium is less than 0.7% in U-235, it is classified as DEPLETED URANIUM, but that does NOT mean that it is not radioactive, its radioactivity is just less.

Your dentist probably has equipment with thin films of DU-oxide. It's one of the general uses. However, all such uses of DU require additional layers of ceramic coatings to avoid "contamination".

In fact, some radiologists use think DU slabs to calibrate their radiation detectors.

The myth of DU, as some governments have said in public: Because DU has <0.7% in U-235, which is less than U-235 in natural Uranium, it's not bad.

Fact: Natural uraniums do not come in antitank slugs and do not explode into burnted dust particles to be inhaled either.

According to medical scientists, a standard DU slab of only 7mg/cm^2, gives off 200-230 mrad/hr in beta particles. That's a very thin layer of DU. Considering the DU bullets, which weighs what, at least 1-2 grams?, in a area or volume of less than 2-5 cm^3? That would be in 100's of rad/hr.

Fact 2: Your dentist doesn't let you swallow or inhale the DU either.

When in direct contact with biological tissue, skin, lung, stomach, intestine, etc., DU will emit additional (and more lethal) alpha radiation.

Alpha radiation is typically blocked by thin ceramic films in dental equipment.

Additionally, Uranium is a heavy metal, and chemically toxic if ingested or inhaled.

In summary, DU bullets are dangerous because (1) they are DU in high centration, (2) they come into direct contact with humans.