Depleted Uranium

Depleted Uranium is a waste product that is made when uranium is processed to use as fuel for nuclear reactors and for nuclear weapons. In this process, uranium is separated into enriched uranium (more radioactive than natural uranium), and depleted uranium (less radioactive than natural uranium).

RADIOACTIVE: giving off a harmful form of energy that comes from the breaking up of atoms

The enriched uranium is needed for nuclear weapons and as fuel in nuclear reactors. The depleted uranium is not used for anything, it is waste. The full chemical name of this waste is Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (depleted UF6), but it is often called just DU.

About 500,000 tons (over 450, 000 metric tons) of DU has been produced in the USA since the 1940's.(1) The U.S. Department of the Environment has a Depleted Uranium Management Program to make sure that DU is stored safely and that none of it escapes into the environment. Of course, it costs a lot of money to store DU this way; that is why DU is sold very cheaply to the arms industry to use as a covering on ammunition.

It's radioactive

Depleted Uranium is less radioactive than natural uranium, and it is much less radioactive than enriched uranium. However, DU is radioactive, and it will remain radioactive for a very long time. (The half-life of DU is 4.5 billion years.)

It's a chemical poison

Depleted Uranium is also a chemical poison. Uranium is a heavy metal, like lead and mercury, and heavy metals are poisonous.

What does that do to people?

The website for the US Depleted Uranium Management Program says that DU can cause risks to people's health because:

• Uranium is radioactive and can therefore increase the likelihood of cancer in people who are exposed to it;
• Uranium is a heavy metal. If you breathe in uranium or if you eat food that contains uranium, it can get into your bloodstream and it can have toxic effects on your body organs, mainly your kidneys;
• If DU is exposed to the air, it can produce a chemical reaction with the moisture in the air. This makes a dangerous gas that damages your lungs if you breathe it in. (2)

TOXIC: poisonous

KIDNEYS: the organs that clean waste from your blood, and make urine

People breathe in DU dust

• When DU weapons are used, the DU burns and produces a fine dust, which people breathe in. This dust gets into the ground and into water and so it also gets into the food that people eat.

People touch radioactive material

• Radiation can also come directly from pieces of the weapons that lie around after they have exploded.

A western scientist picked up an Allied bullet in Basra to take back to Germany with him. He put it in a radiation-proof box. When he arrived at Berlin airport, he was arrested for carrying radioactive material. Even though the bullet was in the radiation-proof box, the radiation was strong enough to set off the airport's radiation alarms.

Iraqi children often collect these bullets and small pieces of ammunition and keep them at home.

RADIATION: a harmful form of energy from nuclear reactions

RADIATION-PROOF: designed to stop radiation from getting out