4.5 billion years

[Earth_First]

4.5 billion years. The half-life of depleted uranium.

300 tons. Amount of depleted uranium used in Iraq in 1991.

1500 tons. Estimated amount of depleted uranium used in Iraq since 2003.

2.0 million. Estimated figure of citizens who have died depleted uranium related deaths since 1991.

500,000 cases. Estimated figure of citizens who will face depleted uranium related health complications each year for the next 4.5 billion years.




...depleted uranium is a nuclear occupation of Iraq.

[baldguy]

1. Using depleted uranium weapons should be a war crime.

Just like using chemical and biological weapons.

[poverlay]

2. It's much, much worse than those. n/t

[skids]

3. What's the half life have to do with it?

I thought it was just chemically toxic. Very chemically toxic.

[drm604]

7. And in 4.5 billion years

half of it will no longer be uranium and therefore presumably not as toxic. Of course that depends on the toxicity of stable lead, which is the end product of that decay chain.

http://www.atral.com/U2381.html

Lead is chemically toxic but I don't know if it's more or less toxic than uranium 238. But at least it's not radioactive.

Of course none of that matters since it will be mostly U238 for longer than we need to worry about. This stuff needs to be banned.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

8. It takes forever to "dissipate" or go away.

A half-life is the amount of time it takes for the amount to diminish by half. So if you had a pound (though I know that's not how they measure it!), say, of this, in 4.5 billion years, you'd still have half a pound left. It also means that, technically, nothing will ever go away, since you can break amounts in half indefinitely.

:scared:

[cyborg_jim]

11. Er no. That's not how it works.

There's a finite amount of uranium - it decays into atoms with lower atomic numbers (eventually into lead) and releases various forms of radiation as it does so.

It cannot be endlessly divided.

[BadgerLaw2010]

19. High half life also means it's pretty much inert. By definition, it radiates very slowly.

Massive physics ignorance in this thread.

[cyborg_jim]

10. Er no. It's Alpha/Beta/Gamma irradiation - not chemistry

[drm604]

13. It's also chemically toxic.

Actually, in addition to the radioactivity, uranium is also chemically toxic.

http://www.ieer.org/fctsheet/uranium.html

[skids]

14. Well, I can see alpha...

...if it lodges next to a cell, what could be an underestimated danger. I think in the case of beta/gamma the danger is pretty well quantified, though.

This is not to say this crap should never have been used as ammo, and it is pretty much an atrocity, but it does seem to be the majority opinion that the toxicological effects are worse than the radiological effects.

The chemical toxicity of uranium salts is greater than their radiological toxicity. Its radiological hazards are dependent on the purity of the uranium, and there has been some concern that depleted uranium produced as a by-product of nuclear reprocessing may be contaminated with more dangerous isotopes: this should not be a concern for depleted uranium produced as tailings from initial uranium enrichment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium#Health_considerations

[applegrove]

4. What on earth do they use it for? Sorry if it is a stupid question. I just don't

know much about it.

[soothsayer]

6. It's really, really heavy so when you make shell casings out of it you can

penetrate armored vehicles and stuff. The whole rest of the world has outlawed it, but we use it merrily. WE're going to have 160,000 soldiers and however many hundreds of thousands of bilgewater and halliburton employees who are sterile, have horrible birth defects, etc. Enjoy living in that huge embassy, asshats! And of course the poor Iraqis are in for loads and loads of cancers and horrible things, too. Even worse than our warfighters.

[applegrove]

16. So it is a new toy in the arsenal. Very sad.

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. Not outlawed; it's in the arsenals of several countries

From the Wikipedia article above (with references):

It is thought that between 17 and 20 states have weapons incorporating depleted uranium in their arsenals. They include the USA, the UK, France, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Pakistan, Thailand, Iraq and Taiwan. DU ammunition is manufactured in 18 countries. Only the US and the UK have acknowledged using DU weapons.<3>
...
There is no specific treaty ban on the use of DU projectiles. There is a developing scientific debate and concern expressed regarding the impact of the use of such projectiles and it is possible that, in future, there will be a consensus view in international legal circles that use of such projectiles violate general principles of the law applicable to use of weapons in armed conflict. No such consensus exists at present.

[alittlelark]

9. It is incredibly hard, and will penetrate just about anything.

.... it's also a good way for them to get rid of nuclear waste w/o burying it....

:evilfrown: :mad:

[valerief]

12. They must feel dandy that they're recycling. nt

[geomon666]

5. 4.5 billion year half life.

There won't even be any biological life left on the planet at that point, but this shit will still be laying there. Nice.

[mudesi]

15. And the sun will almost be dead

The sun will run out of hydrogen and become a supernova in about 5 billion years. How apt!

[geomon666]

22. Yup, it's going to be a hell of a show.

I sure hope reincarnation is real.

[Kip Humphrey]

17. Welcome to Armageddon,,, It happened and we didn't even notice (yet!)

[blues90]

18. This is precisely why they don't care about most lifes

They know what this depleted uranium is capable of and made an informed decision to use it .

Knowing this then you know for certain without a doubt that the only thing that matters to them meaning this admin and it's supporters is the big money grab .

This is one reason why I don't think they would hesitate to use nukes in Iran if they felt it necessary . They did it in Japan .

Plus this crap will be here brought by the troops and to bring birth defects home that make lead look like childs play .

[BadgerLaw2010]

20. Would you prefer a 300 day half-life instead?

Just wondering if anyone in this thread has the slightest clue how radiation actually works.

[tkmorris]

21. You're correct of course

Generally speaking, the longer the half-life is the less radiation it is putting out.

[NutmegYankee]

23. I don't agree with the hysteria, BUT

A Gamma ray emitter with a short half life would be better for the long term. No alpha radiation to breathe and damage the lungs through ionization, and the decay product would probably be less toxic chemically.

You would have to stay away from the area or die for a few years, but .....

[MisterHowdy]

25. Isn't depleted Uranium used to make the armor for M1 battle tanks.

I didn't know it was so harmful/deadly.

[hfojvt]

24. it's not nuclear. It's chemical.

With that long of a half-life it is not very radioactive.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs257/en/

and it does not appear, from that source, to be very chemically toxic. Do you have sources for any of those numbers?