What
is ‘Depleted Uranium’?
The prefix ‘depleted’ suggest us that this is a mild
version, which
could also be suggested as its origin as a waste product of a nuclear
power
station. However, radioactivity is a standard property of uranium, and
one gram
will always give off 12,000 "atomic disintegrations" per second.
It is pointless to discriminate between mildly, moderately and highly
radioactive uranium – all uranium is highly radioactive (though not
necessarily
enriched).
The
military interest in this metal was the discovery that it is readily
producing
immensely high temperatures when included in bombs, shells and bullets.
It
produces temperatures exceeding 6,000 C and then vaporizes, the dust
eventually
entering the respiratory system of distant people, friend and foe
alike. But
the military interest is limited to the immediate gain of this heat
production,
enabling the disruption of previously invincible structures. This is
the
working mechanism of the ‘bunker-blasting bombs.’
Uses
1991-2009
The introduction of the new weapon appears to have been
the first Gulf
War in 1991. 375 tons were distributed then – not much compared
to later use
but with detrimental effects to the own troops (and probably worse to
Iraqi
civilians, see later).
Since
then, the radioactive weapon has been dispersed over Serbia in 1995-99,
Afghanistan 2001-02, Iraq again
since 2003 and Lebanon by
Israel in 2006. Whether
it has also been used in Israel’s recent destructive war against Gaza, remains
to be proved 75
tons were reported. It has further been tested on Okinawa (Japan) and in Costa
Rica in 1995-96.
Compared to the use of
nuclear weapons over Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, which killed ~¼ million people, a
much higher amount of radioactive substances have been released.
Although it is
attempted to hide the number of victims, it has also been suggested
that their
number may bypass the Japanese figures.
The Victims
There are four kinds of victims to
uranium-ammunition:
1) the original
targets, the unhappy soldiers beyond the not-so-sure armour;
2) the ‘allied’ or
Israeli soldiers inhaling radioactive dust for months;
3) civilians exposed to
the same, but for years; and
4) children produced from radioactive soldier's
couplings and the mentioned civilians with devastating birth defects.
Possibly,
it is reasonable to identify a fifth group of victims: the soldier’s
wives
(radioactivity transferred with semen).
Concerning the second
group, the ‘Gulf War syndrome’ caused extreme morbidity (in 2000,
325,000 of
580,400 soldiers participating in the 1st Gulf
War were on permanent
medical leave
and mortality was booming among a large part of the soldiers active in
Iraq
since 1991 – we know now, it is a radiation toxicity, often a
predecessor of a
malignant disease to which there is no treatment, no cure. Medical care
is
denied or delayed for all uranium exposed casualties while the United
States
Department of Defense and the British Ministry of Defence officials
continue to
deny any correlation between uranium exposure and adverse health and
environmental effects.
The amount of severe birth
defects in Iraq since 1991 has been very impressive, though hidden to a
statistical evaluation. The children had committed the crime of being
siblings
to inhabitants of Saddam Hussein’s regime, therefore we are not
interested.
In Serbia, the recipient of
thousands of tons of uranium-containing bombs, the general incidence of
cancer
has at least doubled.
Here known as the ‘Balkan Syndrome,’ the use of depleted uranium shells
are
suspected of being responsible for the ill-health of both veterans and
former
peacekeepers.
To the victims must also be
counted the future victims, since this war-crime, the spread of
radioactive
substances, goes on.
The
‘Dirty Bomb’
Having dispersed so much radioactivity over
some countries and openly threatening a repetition over Iran in the
near
future, it almost looks as a hypocrisy when ‘dirty bombs’ (i.e. bombs
causing
distribution of radioactivity over large civilian areas) are in focus
as
possible terrorist targets. However, knowing that the majority of
terrorist
activities are carried out by the very governmental organs that should
protect
us against them,
it must be feared that the dirty bomb may really hit us (as long as it
does not
hit ‘them,’ perhaps our best defence).
Disposal
of Radioactive Waste
It deserves attention that there worldwide, in spite of
widespread nuclear energy use, does not exist a single
‘permanent’ deposit for the nuclear waste from nuclear power plants,
therefore
numerous ‘temporary’ ones. The bombs containing depleted uranium are
therefore
an important way to get rid of the problematic surplus.
Another way has been to dump it in the oceans,
where then dolphins have presented impressive burns from leaking
barrels. In
Germany, barrels with radioactive waste are rapidly rusting in the
intruding salted
water of an earlier mine
– the ground-water will soon carry the punishment out.