University of Delhi overview and information

Chemistry - Depleted Uranium

Uranium is a natural element that occurs in three different isotopes (U234, U235, and U238) in nature. All three are radioactive with half-lives billions of years long and all three are toxic to biological life. Only U235 is capable of undergoing nuclear fission, which makes it extremely valuable both for industrial applications such as nuclear power production in civilian nuclear reactors and for use in nuclear weapons production. Only a very small percentage of naturally occurring Uranium is U235 (significantly less than 1.0%), so it must be extracted through complex mechanisms to yield higher percentages for use in nuclear power production and in fissionable nuclear weapons. It is also produced artificially, as a byproduct of reprocessing the spent nuclear cores of nuclear reactors.

After extraction of U235, the left-over U234 and U238 are considered "depleted

Uranium" which, because it is very dense and produces very high temperatures on explosive combustion, is used extensively for manufacture into ammunition, especially in fighter/ground attack aircraft like the Fairchild Republic a-10 Thunderbolt "tank killer."

Because depleted Uranium is a toxic metal, it remains dangerous to the environment and its inhabitants long after the cessation of hostilities in which it is used. Furthermore, on combustion, depleted Uranium also aerosolizes releasing particles sufficiently small to be inhaled into the lungs where it represents a deadly medical threat. Likewise, it is also capable of contaminating food crops and water where it is ingested with similarly devastating medical consequences. Recent studies (i.e. since the first Gulf War of 1991) have revealed dramatic increases in cancers and birth defects known to be associated with Uranium contamination and poisoning in the populations of Iraq as well as in Bosnia where U.S. coalition aircraft enforced the UN-imposed no fly zone in connection with the 1992 operations in the Balkan Conflict. The results of these studies strongly suggest that reevaluation may be necessary to justify the continued use of depleted Uranium military ordinance for humanitarian reasons.