Radioactivity Detected in Bosnia Where NATO Used Depleted Uranium Shells

voanews.com ^ | 11 Nov 2002, 20:40 UTC | VOA News

[Destro]

Radioactivity Detected in Bosnia Where NATO Used Depleted Uranium Shells

VOA News

11 Nov 2002, 20:40 UTC

United Nations environmental experts have said they have detected radioactivity in three areas of Bosnia where NATO forces used depleted uranium shells during an air strike in 1995.

U.N. Environment Program officials Monday warned against deploying forces in those areas for fear of a possible health risk coming from the radioactive material.

The head of the U.N. team, Pekka Haavisto, said the three places of concern were an ammunition storage site near Sarajevo, a nearby tank repair factory and a military barracks in Han Pijesak in eastern Bosnia.

The areas were hit by NATO air strikes using depleted uranium armor-piercing rounds in 1995 as part of an effort to curb attacks by Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Investigators had probed 14 sites over the past month.

NATO authorities last year launched a probe into the possible link between the use of depleted uranium ammunition in the Balkans and increased cancer rates among peacekeepers who had served in the area. But a committee reported that medical research so far had not proved any link between the weapons and the health problems.

Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

[Glutton]

This was also an issue used to try to stop the use of the Naval bombardment of an island in Puerto Rico. I seem to remember it mentioned quite a bit when I was reading about that political struggle.

On another note, I was curious if anyone knows just how much U235 in in depleted uranium 238 used in munitions and armor?

[Poohbah]

Between 0.15% to 0.72% U-235 in DU.

[Glutton]

Thank you.

[Godel]

Radioactivity is detected everywhere on Earth, it even emanates from the human body. Without any specific measurements, this is nothing but hysteria. Yes depleted uranium is slightly radioactive, so is everything else. Carbon-dating anyone?

[aruanan]

There was also some worry about traces of plutonium which didn't seem to be borne out by the study as detailed in Science. I'll see if I can find it when I get back over to the lab.

[Delta 21]

Its called DEPLETED Uranium for a reason.

[Tis The Time''s Plague]

So if you're not eating the stuff, you're in pretty good shape.

I heard from a friend that he was told in the Army's gunners school (armoured) that the rule was "DON'T LICK THE DU SHELLS"

Good rule.

[Bogey78O]

Yea, considering DU's safety protocals are designed more to safeguard against it's chemical effects.

[Bogey78O]

LOL

[jwalsh07]

Good rule.

LOL. Yeah that one ranks right up there with not putting the grenade in your pocket after you pull the pin.

[misanthrope]

No comment on the validity of the article.

Uranium is EXTREMELY toxic if ingested in any manner. It's like super lead on steroids. No surprise that folks in the vicinty of it's use as projectiles (high velocity projectiles, DU has a habit of "pyrophoria", meaning that it "burns" upon high velocity impact with a hard target, producing a uranium aerosol) suffer higher rates of cancer and other diseases.

[Prodigal Son]

LOL! In basic, when we began grenade training, we were all given two training grenades (they have a hole in the bottom- they work like a real one except they make a cute little "pop" and you can use them again).

The drill seargent was giving the class on how to arm the grenade. We were all lying in the prone in the dirt (for some reason I can't remember). The fellow next to me was doing everything the drill seargent did. The drill seargent held it like so- the guy next to me did as well. The drill flipped off the first safety clip- I watched the Joe next to me do the same. The drill pulled the pin- so did Joe. The drill overemphatically moved his thumb, allowing the "spoon" to fly away and so did Joe. The drill seargent tossed the grenade away and this is where the Joe next to me seemed to realize that he wasn't supposed to be doing what the drill was doing but simply "paying attention" to what the seargent was trying to show us. To my surprise, instead of tossing his freshly armed grenade, he cupped it in both hands and tried to "hide it" (I guess to keep the drill from being angry at him).

Well, about one second after the drill seargent's grenade popped harmlessly on the ground, Joe's grenade went off in his hand. It actually burned him pretty good. His hand was black. I found it to be very amusing. Drill Seargent did not ;-)

On a sadder note, an E5 was killed on the Bradley range in Graf, Germany once while I was there. A 25mm round was jammed and he was trying to beat it out with a hammer and screwdriver. I guess he messed around and hit the firing pin. He should've known better. I watched an E7 beat a 4.2" mortar round down the tube with a mattock handle after it got stuck (I watched from a safe distance...) He actually managed to dislodge the round and withdraw the mattock handle before the round could spiral down onto the firing pin. He said he'd been doing it that way for years. I could list a lot more...

Joe does some dumb sh!t sometimes.

[jwalsh07]

Yeah, that he does. I had a guy in my squad in basic that pulled the pin in the pit in the live training exercise and then froze.

You want to see a pissed off good ole boy from Georgia. I thought Drill Sargent Huff's head was gonna explode before the grenade did. :-}

[Carry_Okie]

In case you are also concerned about uranium's chemical toxicity, I thought I'd add a word or two to Pooh's characteristically terse but accurate answer.

The uranium is effective, not only because it is dense, but because it burns its way through armor plate. So in case you are concerned about the toxicity of airborne uranium residues to people we are already trying to kill, or read a piece of disinformation on the topic, the combusted oxides of uranium are virtually non reactive and very stable, even when the dust is inhaled.

Chemically, it's equivalent to sand.

[Destro]

Many have asked So HOW MUCH radioactivity is there? If the article won't say, then it's absolutely worthless.

The VOA does not say but it did say U.N. Environment Program officials Monday warned against deploying forces in those areas for fear of a possible health risk coming from the radioactive material.

You are all correct in that DU is harmeless unless shot at you or injested as misanthrope suggested, but aruanan mentioned plutonium in DU (which should not belong there).

Plutonium wrongly mixed in with DU is a deadly radioactive problem:

Uranium shells held 'cocktail of nuclear waste'

Sun, 21 Jan 2001 11:40:20 EST

by Jonathon Carr-Brown

SHELLS fired in the Gulf war and Kosovo were made out of material contaminated by a potentially lethal cocktail of nuclear waste, according to a book published this week. The claim, supported by American army and government documents, suggests that the military in Kosovo and Iraq used depleted uranium (DU) shells containing traces of elements that indicate the probable presence of plutonium and other highly toxic nuclear by-products.

The allegations contained in Depleted Uranium: The Invisible War will embarrass the British and American governments, which have consistently denied DU is harmful, and enrage veterans of the Gulf and Kosovo.

Martin Messonnier, Frederick Loore and Roger Trilling, the authors of the book, are convinced that the Pentagon has misled the world with claims that its DU is safe. Until now, the Pentagon has maintained that DU shells are safe because they contain only mildly radioactive uranium. But the authors claim the shells were made with uranium contaminated with more toxic elements.

DU was first used in the Gulf war where the dense metal proved deadly against Iraqi tanks. The American army is determined to keep the shells in its arsenal despite the fact the American navy has withdrawn them on health grounds.

The authors' claims are based on papers that have led them to three nuclear plants in Paducah, Kentucky; Portsmouth, Ohio; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee - the main makers of DU. Last January Bill Richardson, the energy secretary, accepted after decades of denials that thousands of workers at Paducah "had been exposed to radiation and chemicals that produced cancer and early death".

Most of the victims display symptoms similar to Gulf war veterans - particularly chronic fatigue and joint pain. The authors claim the workers had been handling uranium contaminated with plutonium, which was then used to make DU. Documents from August 1999 show that workers at Paducah had been inhaling plutonium as part of a "flawed government experiment to recycle used nuclear reactor fuel". The first sign was employees with a string of cancers in the 1980s.

In October 1999 the energy department reported that "during the process of making fuel for nuclear reactors and elements for nuclear weapons, the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant . . . created depleted uranium potentially containing neptunium and plutonium". Plutonium can cause cancer if ingested even in minute quantities. What the workers at Paducah and its sister plants were dealing with were recycled uranium stocks already contaminated during the enrichment process at other nuclear plants. The workers, like the soldiers in Iraq and Kosovo, were not equipped to deal with these hazards. Paducah was designed to handle uranium, not plutonium, which is about 100,000 times more radioactive per gram.

Last week United Nations officials investigating the effects of DU in Kosovo confirmed they had found traces of elements indicating plutonium. According to the authors, the only possible source for DU containing plutonium are Paducah, Portsmouth and Oak Ridge, which used the contaminated uranium.

Traces of U236 prove there is nuclear waste from a nuclear reactor mixed with the DU in the projectile. This means: Plutonium and Neptunium are also present. These measurements are done for dr. Asaf Durakovic with dust-samples from South-Iraq

[Prodigal Son]

LOL- old Army stories are the best. I looked in the back of a mortar track once during a live fire and the Ammo Bearer/driver was busily cutting charges and fuzing rounds- a cigarette dangling from one corner of his mouth and a four-eigths cheese charge dangling from the other. If those two items had met, he wouldn't have been smiling too much for a while.

[MonroeDNA]

Small amounts of radiation ofer your lifetime make you live longer.

The "Radon scare" has been totally disbunked, for one.

It must really be disheartening these days to be "green."

Green with envy, no doubt.

[Carry_Okie]

Oxidized uranium is so stable that it couldn't be reduced by any chemical in the body. Your ignorance is betrayed by your unwillingness to discuss the topic in terms of specific isotopes or chemical potentials.

I suggest you look up the oxidation states in your CRC before you go believing that crap. Try again.

[MonroeDNA]

I encourage all greens to move to where there is no nuclear anything. Like France.

Oh, wait a minute. France gets its electricity from 75 percent nuclear plants.

Guess it doesn't deoderize those bacteria as much as we thought.

(sniff, sniff)