Insight

Depleted Uranium

Depleted uranium is a byproduct of uranium enrichment that provides the “fuel” for our nuclear reactors. It is used as a coating for large caliber bullets and anti-tank shells due to its very high density and the fact that it ignites to a very high temperature on impact.

It is suggested by many that Depleted Uranium used in combat is a nuclear weapon. It is more accurate to group the two together as radiological weapons, or those that produce deadly radiation.

On impact DU is released into the air, contaminating the local environment and traveling great distances to contaminate others. The use of DU has been credibly linked to Gulf War Syndrome in our returning veterans, and a dramatic rise in birth defects in contaminated areas.

Resources

Links

  1. Wikipedia: Depleted Uranium

  2. Global Research: Uranium vs. DNA

  3. Global Research: Birth Defects

  4. Is The Pentagon Giving Our Soldiers Cancer? Rolling Stone

Videos
image 1 of 1

The use of depleted uranium will be as devastating to our health and our environment. There were no concentrations of radioactive isotopes before the 20th century. Human ingenuity has created a poison that lasts 4.5 billion years, spreads easily by air or water into our food chain, and can’t be easily collected or removed once it has been dispersed. The primary foreseeable result is a continuous rise in worldwide rates of cancer. In a very real sense, the production and use of these weapons is either rapidly or slowly suicidal for humanity. For our planet and future generations we must before long cease to produce radioactive waste.

  • “The dangers of exposure to depleted uranium combustion products have received widespread attention as a result of the use of DU munitions in the 1991 Gulf War and current conflicts. Peer-reviewed medical and scientific publications state that exposure to uranium is a cause of or contributing factor to Gulf War syndrome. The long-term effects on populations living in the areas in which DU munitions were used have also caused some concern.” 1

  • “Depleted uranium - what is left over when the highly radioactive isotopes of uranium are removed - is widely used by the military. Anti-tank weapons, tank armor and ammunition rounds are just some of the applications…Questions continue to be asked about environmental exposure to uranium from mine tailings; heavily concentrated around Native American communities. “When the uranium mining boom crashed in the ’80s, there wasn’t much cleanup,” Stearns said. Estimates put the number of abandoned mines on the Navajo Nation in Arizona at more than 1,100.” 2

  • “Iraqi and visiting doctors, and a number of news reports, have reported that birth defects and cancers in Iraqi children have increased five- to 10-fold since the 1991 Gulf War and continue to increase sharply, to over 30-fold in some areas in southern Iraq. Currently, more than 50 percent of Iraqi cancer patients are children under the age of 5, up from 13 percent. Children are especially vulnerable because they tend to play in areas that are heavily polluted by depleted uranium… Conservatively, at least 300 tons and 1,700 tons of depleted uranium were used in the Gulf War and the current Iraq War, resectively. This is about 70 grams of depleted uranium per Iraqi citizen, and if inhaled or ingested, it is enough to kill them all.” 3