“The United States has conducted two nuclear wars. The first against Japan in 1945, the second in Kuwait and Iraq in 1991.” ~ Helen Caldicott, M.D.
Depleted uranium (DU) is the highly toxic and radioactive byproduct of the uranium enrichment process. “Depleted” uranium is so called because the content of the fissionable U-234 isotope is reduced from 0.7% to 0.2% in the enrichment process. . . Depleted uranium is roughly 60% as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium, and has a half life of 4.5 billion years. As a result of 50 years of enriching uranium for use in nuclear weapons and reactors, the US has in excess of 1.1 billion pounds of DU waste material.
In the early 1970s, the government began exploring ways to dispose of DU which would relieve it of the burden of having to store it in low-level radioactive waste repositories. DU has several characteristics which make it attractive for use in munitions: it is extremely dense, available in large quantities, and given for free to arms manufacturers (emphasis added).
During the 1970s and 1980s, testing at more than a dozen domestic sites including Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, Jefferson Proving Ground in Indiana, and Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona demonstrated that large and small caliber rounds made of depleted uranium were highly effective in piercing armor. At the same time, the Army found that incorporating depleted uranium metal into tank armor made tanks less vulnerable to penetration from conventional rounds. But while the Army conducted many tests to evaluate the effectiveness of DU bullets and armor, they failed to “closely coordinate the planning and performance of experiments for DU health and environmental assessments.”
After years of research, development and testing, Operation Desert Storm provided the first opportunity for the Pentagon to test DU munitions in combat.
~ Metal of Dishonor, compiled & edited by the DU Education Project, International Action Center; 212-633-6646. Fahey is a Veteran for Peace and Commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Post 5888 in Santa Cruz, CA.