Nuclear War

Depleted Uranium [DU] is a by-product left over when natural uranium ore is enriched for use in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. It is a toxic, dense, hard metal...about 40% less radioactive than [plain old] uranium. IAEA

...when alloyed, Depleted Uranium is ideal for use in armor penetrators [with] the speed, mass and physical properties to perform exceptionally well against armored targets. DU provides a substantial performance advantage, well above other competing materials. This allows DU penetrators to defeat an armored target at a significantly greater distance...On impact with a hard target (such as a tank) the penetrator may generate a cloud of DU dust within the struck vehicle that ignites spontaneously creating a fire that increases the damage to the target...globalsecurity.org

A recently released study shows increased levels of uranium in the air over England durring the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Scientists conducting the study requested the data from the AWE, the Atomic Weapons Establishment which had been collecting samples from the air around their weapons facilities and nuclear power plants ever since a public outcry over a large number of cancer cases. But the scientists had to wait a year to get the information they requested, until the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) became law in the UK. Then, when they did finally recieve the information, data for early 2003 was left out. The time period covering Gulf War 2.

After another long wait, the measurements of Uranium in the air over England durring that crucial time period (Shock and Awe) was made public through a different agency than the AWE.

UK officials are calling the increases a coincidence.

The Department of Defense has an old website dedicated to Depleted Uranium. GulfLink, the Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses which has a lot of sober, reasonable data that proves that DU is no biggie. We all eat, drink and breath a little bit of Uranium every day according to the site, and then we piss it out. And DU is much less radioactive than regular U, they argue, plus only those at the point of impact are at risk of exposure.

But the study by Chris Busby and Saoirse Morgan shows that there is at least some exposure to DU dust, far from the battlefield. The Full 18 page scientific paper concludes:

Despite many pieces of evidence that uranium aerosols are long lived in the environment and are able to travel considerable distances, this is the first evidence as far as we know, that they are able to travel thousands of miles...

From Baghdad to Reading.

The authors of the study then go on to compare the battlefield use of Depleted Uranium to the atmospheric atomic tests of nuclear weapons in the 1960's and the Chernobyl Melt Down. Events that were proven to have exposed the entire globe to radiation.

But the IAEA website downplays the risks from small amounts of DU, and would appear to agree with the thrust of the Department of Defense argument, while being more direct about the potential harm that exposure to DU may cause.