DU - Fears, Facts, and Myths

[Night Stalker]

Depleted Uranium.

Uranium. Radioactive element. Nuclear material. Uranium.

The name alone conjures fears of mushroom clouds and Cancer. What is depleted uranium, though?

All radio active elements undergo radio active decay. They have what is called a half life. Half-life (not the comuter game) is the time for 1/2 of an item to do something. In the case of raioactive elements, that something is to become inert.

This process is a simple exponential growth (decay) problem:

y = x * e^-(r*t)

where x is the inital quantity
e is the natural log constant - apx 2.16
r is the rate of the half-life
t is time expressed in units of the half-life.

So for any given radioactive mass, after one half-life period (r=t), exactly one half of that mass is radioactive, and one half is inert.

DU is the inert part - theoretically non-radioactive. Now, my expertise is not in DU collection methods, but it is my understanding that for a mass of U to be considdered depleted, radioactive emmisions must be below certain levels. I believe those levels are less that the radioactive emmissions of standard sunlight. I will check later to see if I can find public info on this.

So when reports like this are shown:

Originally posted by Skunk: Why not Nightstalker? The British army seems to believe that they represent such a hazard to health that: "When daylight came, the squadron leader, a padre and a number of the troops returned to the scene to bring the body out. Chemical warfare suits had to be worn because of the threat from the depleted uranium used in the American weapons." http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story...926204,00.html Surely something that requires the usage of chemical warfare suits in order to avoid contact poses a threat of "severe damage to the natural environment"?

I believe it is more from fear of Uranium, than actual hazzards.

I will look for more later, and am open to any and all sources on the matter.