DEPLETED URANIUM THE SECRET NUCLEAR WAR

Since the development of the first nuclear power generators, which utilised the ‘peaceful atom’ in the 1950s, stockpiles of the radioactive waste known as Depleted Uranium have been growing.

Natural uranium ore contains about 0.7% U235, traces (0.005%)U234 and the rest (about 99.3%) is U238. They each have 92 protons but different numbers of electrons (143, 142 and 146 respectively). In order for it to be used in nuclear reactors the percentage of U235 needs to be increased to between 3 and 4% depending on the type of reactor. This process is known as enrichment. As you can imagine if you enrich uranium from 0.7% to about 3.5% U235, there’ll be a lot of U238 left over, this is Depleted Uranium, as opposed to Enriched Uranium. Still radioactive, still toxic and with a half life of about 4.2 billion years (ie: forever), there is 7 times as much DU produced by the enrichment process as there is EU. Seven tonnes of waste for each tonne of product.

Back in the late 60s the US Dept of Energy started copping a lot of flak about the huge stockpiles of radioactive waste it was storing in containers similar to cream cans in paddocks and yards adjoining their nuclear facilities. In an effort to reduce this stockpile they asked American industry to come up with ideas of how to reuse it.

As DU is quite heavy (about 1.7 times the density of lead) most of ideas industry came up with made use of this property. Some of the successful ideas included using DU as counterweights in aircraft and ships and as a shielding for more highly radioactive waste.

At this time the USA was in the middle of the Vietnam War and its relationship with China so low that imports of Chinese tungsten were being threatened. Tungsten was (and is) used by weapons manufacturers for armour piercing ammunition because of its density: it was only a matter of time before some evil military bastard thought of replacing Chinese tungsten with radioactive waste.

And so began one of the most insidious chapters of US military history and that’s saying something.

From the very start in the early 1970s the military’s own health and environmental reports have recognized the inherent radioactivity and chemical toxicity of DU. These tests however happened at a time when US (and Australian) veterans of the Vietnam War were making a lot of noises about the effects of Agent Orange and the prevailing military culture of deny, duck and cover ensured that these reports would never see the light of day (or at least not for 25 years).

A DU shell, marketed by their manufacturers as the Silver Bullet is made up of a DU penetrator rod encase in a light metal backed up by explosive. When fired the DU slices through tank armour like butter, catching fire (DU is pyrophoric) and aerosolizing into a very fine uranium ceramic dust. A typical Silver Bullet fired from an A10 Warthog or Harrier jet contains 300 grams of DU. These planes are equipped with 30mm Gatling guns that can fire 3900 shells per minute, usually every fifth shell is a Silver Bullet. This means that either of these planes could release 234 kilograms of DU in a minute. Estimates are that over 300 tonnes of DU was dropped on Southern Iraq and only about 10 tonnes on the Balkans.

DU’s radioactivity is in the form of Alpha particles. Alpha particles are rightly described by the military as the ‘weakest’ form of radiation, they can be stopped by skin. However, when aerosolized into ceramic dust they are easily inhaled and can stay in the lungs for years, irradiating lung tissues causing emphysema or fibrosis. In addition to being inhaled, DU dust can settle on plants where it can be eaten and on open wounds, common in a war zone, where there is no skin to block the alpha radiation from irradiating soft body tissues. In the USA particles of DU have been found in the filters of air-conditioning units over 20 miles from any known source.

In addition to its radioactivity, Depleted Uranium is also chemically toxic as a heavy metal. DU dissolves in water. This heavy metal toxicity can be absorbed byplants and pollute ground water reserves. DU ends up in the kidneys and gastro intestinal tract causing a host of illnesses in a similar way to lead poisoning.

While veterans’ organizations in the US claim that hundreds of ex service persons and their families have been adversely affected by DU, it impossible to estimate the number of people in Iraq and the Balkans suffering from a range of illnesses including congenital birth deformities caused by DU.

By its indiscriminate nature and its ability to manifest itself through generations, Depleted Uranium is a weapon of genocide.

From mining the uranium used, to supporting the US use of DU and testing DU rounds in Australia, the Australian Government is well and truly implicated in this genocidal action. DU was tested here in the mid 1980’s at Jervis Bay on the New South Wales South Coast. Ironically enough, just a couple of years before it was designated as a Marine National Park.

The Australian Government’s new White Paper on Defence has as one of its central tenets, a greater interoperability with the United States: it is more than likely that this will lead to Australian troops using DU weapons in the near future.

Another worrying aspect of our close military ties with the US is the hosting of military training exercises in Australia. Our Government’s don’t ask, don’t care policy with the US military means that we do not know whether or not DU weapons have been used in Australian exercises. However, as we know that most exercises in the US use some DU, we can only assume that the same is the case here.

It is time for Australia’s gutless government to come clean on the issue of DU.