What’s a little depleted uranium in the yard if it helps defeat them terrorists?

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/8180

What’s a little depleted uranium in the yard if it helps defeat them terrorists?
by Mark Drolette | Jun 19 2007

(published originally in the Sacramento News & Review)

The following lead of an April 11, 2007, article e-mailed to me sort of caught my eye (more like pierced it with a radioactive-hot poker):

“Proposed explosives tests upwind from Tracy will release as much as 450 pounds of radioactive depleted uranium dust into the air every year, according to an air pollution permit application filed Friday by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.”

Reading the entire item reminded me of my reaction when I first viewed the Project for the New American Century’s Web site several years ago: it had to be a bad fraternity prank gone even badder.

I called the contact number in the piece, hoping I’d get a kegged-out trickster at Whadda Loda Krappa.

Unfortunately, John Upton of the Tracy Press answered, assuring me his column was, indeed, legit. Worse, he said the mainstream media hadn’t touched the story.

Depleted uranium blasts conducted where millions live, yet nary a peep from established news organizations? What’s wrong with this picture?

more...

[AngryAmish]

1. DU is radioactive, but not very

Radiation is not a problem, the fact that it is a toxic heavy metal is.

[babylonsister]

2. Is that like a little bit pregnant? Put it this way; I wouldn't want to live there.

I'm fearful that problems down the road will be found that correlate to that 'little bit of radiation that isn't harmful'.

[AngryAmish]

8. You are a little bit radioactive

Sunlight is a form of radiation.

There are people here that can explain this better than I but it comes down to DU being a very weak alpha particle emitter.

[MadHound]

4. That small amount of radioactivity isn't a problem,

Until it enters the body via inhalation or ingestion. Then it is a huge problem on par with the toxic effects of heavy metal poisoning.

You're right, DU isn't a very radioactive source, primarily an alpha and beta emitter. No problem as long as it is outside the body, where your protective skin covering, or clothing will block that radiation. However once that dust gets into the system, there is nothing internally to protect your body, your cells, from the effects of the radiation. Sure, it may not be much, but it will be with you for life, steadily emitting, steadily mutating or destroying cells, until strange cancers, diseases, birthdefects, etc. take hold.

This is not to minimize the toxic heavy metal effects, that is another huge problem with DU. But you shouldn't try and minimize the nasty effects of DU dust. The nuclear industry doesn't, so why should you?

[babylonsister]

5. Thank you for terrifying me, but I knew/know nothing about DU, so

I'm happy to learn more. All I know is it's not a good thing. You've confirmed that.

[Systematic Chaos]

7. Anything that gives me more butt hair is a GOOD thing.

:sarcasm:

Sorry, my warped side is alive and well this morning.

[MadHound]

9. I worked at a research reactor, a small nuke plant

And I'm more than aquainted with the hazards of radiation. And I've come away more convinced than ever that nuclear power is a path we really need to turn away from.

[CrispyQ]

3. What the fuck is wrong with these people????

And what the fuck is it going to take to get them out of office???? I try to hang onto the hope that this country isn't completely lost, but every day it gets harder to do.

And what, exactly, are you testing? Your utter lack of conscience?

Or -- could it all be one mammoth Bushian experiment studying the long-term effects of depleted uranium on civilians? Forgive my cynicism, but I’m a tad suspicious of folks who’ve slain hundreds of thousands of people purely for personal gain telling me I’ve nothing to worry about.

Here’s something I’ve pondered: When it’s all said and done, when the harebrained press the hair trigger and the attacked retaliate in kind, when the entire globe is one broiling wasteland and the inhumanoids like Cheney and Bush and Rumsfeld and Perle emerge from their bunkers in their designer X-Ray-Bans and dark blue Michelin Man-like anti-radiation suits (complete with skinny ties), what will they think?

That at long last, this was what they wanted? That by scorching the earth, they finally achieved their ultimate prize: the knowledge that it’s all theirs now?

But -- what’s all theirs? A smoking hulk of a planet on which nothing can survive for myriad millennia?

[madfloridian]

6. Video from CNN, DU in Hawaii also?, and Florida's bombing range...

Several views on DU:

In denial about depleted uranium

The video from CNN about it that is just devastating...direct link.

http://veredictum.smartvideochannel.com/media/PlayVideo.aspx?cid=26788E264983422C8AFADF756D726E18

We closed down the Vieques, Puerto Rico bombing range because the people had rallies and called attention to the use of live ammo. We had done huge damage to their environment.

Now they are using live ammo in Florida at Avon Park bombing range. Here are some articles about it, though they do not mention if DU is used. We have no clue, and if they did they would say it is harmless.

U.S. Forces to Train At Avon Park Range
More than 250 troops will practice techniques they will put to use in Iraq.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060330/NEWS/603300385&SearchID=73278647988314

Avon Park Bombing Likely to Go Up
Navy plan may pose a threat to several species, including the protected
Florida scrub-jay.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051101/NEWS/511010335&SearchID=73278648134392

Navy to Sharpen Its Aim In Polk
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060629/NEWS/606290455&SearchID=73278648205416

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. DU in NYC too, probably