Is depleted Uranium really radioactive? Does it really cause

>>33193364
don't start swallowing them and you should be fine

>>33193364
It is not radioactive to any meaningful extent, but it's toxic as hell

It's not radioactive, it's an extremely toxic metal when it's airborne such as on impact as part of a munition

>>33193364
iirc for every tonne of uranium suitable for power plants and weapons there are 10 tonnes of DU produced as waste
so some clue of radioactive potential but people always downplay this kind of thing or think of it as only being someone else's problem

only thing I have seen about it is that it spreads as dust when it hits buildings then mingles in the rubble
also it catches fire when it hits metal this is very much a problem with aluminium armour
as the burning aluminium vapes the DU a little
>>33193369
also this
just don't breath the dust or drink the water or eat the plants or the fish

>>33193364

It does get used in US ammo. Which means you can find it in war zones. People who find it, like kids, get radiation damage if they play around with it for too long. I don't know about genetic effects, but the odds of getting kids at all probably diminishes.

>>33193508

Depleted Uranium isn't really a radioactive hazard. At least not a significant one. The problem is even if it isn't all that radioactive it's toxic as all fucking hell. It poisons the soil and the water.

I don't know how correct this article is, but it does seem relevant:
http://www.mintpressnews.com/depleted-uranium-iraq-wars-legacy-cancer/193338/

>>33193364

It's really only dangerous in dust form (aka, if you're inside a structure/vehicle being penetrated). It can bioaccumulate into fish, but there has to be a fuckton of munitions expended in one watershed for that to happen

>>33193364
It's toxic and pyrophoric.

>>33193364
Depleted Uranium is an Alpha emitter. in a sold form its pretty well harmless. The problem is when its used it tends to cast off fine particals which can be inhaled or ingested. in that case you have to worry about the alpha emissions and the heavy metal issues as well.

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>>33193364

It isn't significantly radioactive. The readings to determine if the DU aircraft counterweights were a hazard to workers and passengers were mostly "below measurable" limits.

Like said above though, it's pretty toxic stuff like most heavy metals.

The Iraqi birth defects after Desert Storm are oddly similar to sheep grazing downwind of above ground test sites. It took a lot of effort to get the military to accept that alpha radiation is bad even though it can't penetrate your dead skin cells to cause damage.

Intact, it's not that nasty. Just wash your hands like after you've been using lead solder.
Downwind of where it's been burning, that is a whole world of suck. I would put off having children for a couple of years if I had been exposed to uranium dust.

I saw an article claiming that the isotopes used in Yugoslavia indicated that spent fuel had been used instead of DU. That seems to have been scrubbed from history. Maybe it got disproven, maybe it never happened.

After the fall of the Somali government, one of the Italian mafia's was purported to be filling up cargo ships with the most un-disposable wastes and just sinking them off the coast. Barrels would jsut wash up on the beach and nobody would do anything about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_waste_dumping_by_the_'Ndrangheta

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates-1225817.html

>>33193364
It's not radioactive by itself. It is however heavy metal(toxic by default) so when it goes through armour, and heats up, some of it gets evaporated. It's also possible that some radioactive isotopes are created in the process. Maybe. Perhaps.

The more dangerous thing is when it's in armour - when subjected to HEAT, it will melt and it's likely that your tank will have to be decontaminated first afterwards. It happened in Iraq few times, so there is some "danger"

Generally the biggest thing about it is toxicity though. We are extremely sensitive towards radiation-related problems while the reality is that it's not that bad.

>>33193364
Sciencefag here

DU is the stabler isotope of the two kinds (238 and 235, i think). 238 has a half life of 4.5 billion years, whereas enriched uranium (235) has a half life of only 700 million years.

This means that the energy (radiation) released by a pound of DU in any time frame is an order of magnitude LESS than EU.

In contrast, EU will lose its radioactivity sooner, since it's less stable.

>TL;DR
DU isn't dangerous at all when it comes to radiation, unless you get it inside your body or don't wash your exposed skin. And even then, the radiation won't be what kills you. It'll be uranium poisoning.

Dude DU is one of the nastiest byproducts of modern times.

>Birth defects
>Cancers
>Genetic damage
>Lukemia
>Toxic

Dude this shits like the plight of humanity. Look up radiation, birth defects, and see for yourself.

>>33194036
>it's possible that some radioactive isotopes are created in the process
Not even remotely possible, but i appreciate your honesty about your uncertainty on it

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Should be fine.

>>33194257
Fuck off you anti vaxxer greenpeace shill

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>>33193364
Radiation worker here, DU is not significantly radioactive and even if it was, radiation is not a huge fucking deal.
My yearly dose is higher than what you would get handling DU. It is a heavy metal though. The problem arises from the fact that most of these people are massive idiots with no common sense and walk out into areas with DU, spent munitions, unburnt powder, and unspent explosives and play with them all day.
Exposing yourself to spent brass, lead, armor dust, unspent RDX and TNT will give you some toxicity, especially if you don't wash your hands after handling it all day and then eat with your hands. You can't fix stupid
Look up the goiânia incident for a good example of why 3rd worlders will find new and interesting ways to kill themselves with toxic substances: tl;dr, they find a medical caesium source smash it into powder and upon seeing it glow blue, they feed it to their daughter and spread the highly radioactive powder all around town.

>>33194316
>they feed it too their daughter and spread it all over town
T-they spread it using their daughter?

>>33194342
In so many words, yes
They put it in her hair, painted her with it, and fed it to her because they thought it was magic
In showing it to other people, they spread the dust to others who ingested it.
IIRC the govt had to dig up and quarantine something like 10000 cu ft of dirt because they didn't realize the glowing blue shit was ridiculously toxic and radioactive and were spreading it all over town in the process of showing all their friends the magic dirt they found

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>>33194316
Nice keyboard. Slowly everyone at my workplace is falling into the clackity clack of mechanical keyboards.

>>33194369
Lmao

It's honestly kinda sweet that they're all like "hey look actual magic stuff!" And their first thought is to give it to their daughter

The only thing that really seems strange to me about depleted uranium is that it somehow gets around UN laws in regards to transporting radioactive waste into other countries.

>>33193364
Actual fucking chemistry teacher her.

DU is less radioactive than the equivalent mass of fucking bananas.

U-238 which is what the majority of DU is has a half life of like 4 billion years.

I mean that said its like if someone told you to hang around a ton of arsenic or lead. Shit is going to give you heavy metal poisoning

>>33194428
>arsenic
>heavy metal poisoning
>being neither heavy nor metal

confirmed for public education teacher

>>33193364
>Does it really cause genetic defects in Iraqi civilians
Inbreeding does that already.

http://www.bmj.com/content/333/7573/831

>>33194486
metalloid

>>33194387
Thanks!
Unfortunately with radiologists, they go the other way. If the CT software doesn't come on an iPad, they don't want it

>>33194245
DU dragon dildo

>>33194486
>element 33
>metalloid

It has d orbitals and is heavier than anything else you are going to have in your body above trace amounts

>>33194486
>https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/metalsheavy/

Arsenic is typically lumped in with the other toxic metal and toxic metals are sometimes used interchangeably with heavy metals