Depleted uranium .

Originally posted by Starwars50
Uranium 238 is only slightly radiactive - In fact if one was completely covered in it it would sheild FAR MORE atmospheric radiation than it would expose you to.

That's because its radiation can't really penetrate outer layer of skin. (which is made of dead cells)
But when DU penetrator hit target part of it is vaporised to dust (remember it's also pyrophoric) and those particles can get easily into your body for example with breathing or eating.
So it'cannot be said completely harmless.

Originally posted by cyberdude78
Uranium 238 was the material used for the first bomb dropped on Japan. This one was nick named fat boy for its enormous size. The second bomb dropped used plutononium.

Whoa, history police, back the airplane up! The FIRST bomb dropped on Japan (Hiroshima) was "Little Boy," and it was a gun-type bomb made up of highly enriched uranium (>80% U-235). By gun-type I mean that it had the uranium separated into two subcritical assemblies, and essentially fired one at the other.

The SECOND bomb, "Fat Man," was dropped on Nagasaki, and it did use plutonium (mostly Pu-239). It was an implosion-type bomb, similar to the "Trinity" test in Nevada and all modern weapons.

More Info

Depleted uranium is only slighly radioactive, but it is very toxic as mentioned above. Also, it does make an excellent radiation shield.

Correct, E_T, U-238 decays via alpha decay. An alpha particle is a helium-4 nucleus, and can be very damaging to cells. Also, as E_T said, a thin layer of dead skin cells is enough to stop one. However, I should point out that one gram of U-238 has an activity of only 0.3 microCuries. For comparison, one gram of the potassium-40 that can be found in a banana has an activity of 7.0 microCuries.

[edit on 7/1/2004 by PurdueNuc]

[edit on 7/1/2004 by PurdueNuc]

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
How can any bullet be humane?

Well it shouldn't cause much pain
No really it shouldn't contain chemical or biological agents

btw to return to your point no bullet is humane but by geneva standards a normal bullet is humane: it's a limit of what could be more horrific

Originally posted by PurdueNuc
The SECOND bomb, "Fat Man," was dropped on Nagasaki, and it did use plutonium (mostly Pu-239). It was an imposion-type bomb, similar to the "Trinity" test in Nevada and all modern weapons.

Typo, there should read implosion. (just that those who don't know learn correct name)

nuclearweaponarchive.org...
nuclearweaponarchive.org...

And this is design which is most common. ("hydrogen"/thermonuclear bomb, those first twwo are fission bombs)
nuclearweaponarchive.org...


people.howstuffworks.com...

Originally posted by cyberdude78
A few of the figures are difficult to believe. The figure for the rise in radiation in Bagdad is impossible. It would be a microwave oven in there if that were true. But some of those figures probably are true. When they say depleted WTF does that mean.

It not very hard to believe. The background radiation is pretty low, so with the addition of 400 tons of radioactive material it is very likely that the radiation levels went up by a factor of 7 or 10 at the very least.

Originally posted by E_T

Originally posted by Starwars50
Uranium 238 is only slightly radiactive - In fact if one was completely covered in it it would sheild FAR MORE atmospheric radiation than it would expose you to.

That's because its radiation can't really penetrate outer layer of skin. (which is made of dead cells)
But when DU penetrator hit target part of it is vaporised to dust (remember it's also pyrophoric) and those particles can get easily into your body for example with breathing or eating.
So it'cannot be said completely harmless.

No, it's because U238's half life is 4.5 Billion years. Mathematically this means that at any one point there is an extremely low probability of any U-238 decaying. It's duaghter products have very long half lives as well, Th 232 is 14 Billion years for example.

Many people fail to note that a long half live indicates low radiation..

(And yes, the Alpha particles will not penetrate the skin - but for every alpha decay there is at least on gamma ray produced)

Originally posted by SiRiNO

Originally posted by cyberdude78
A few of the figures are difficult to believe. The figure for the rise in radiation in Bagdad is impossible. It would be a microwave oven in there if that were true. But some of those figures probably are true. When they say depleted WTF does that mean.

It not very hard to believe. The background radiation is pretty low, so with the addition of 400 tons of radioactive material it is very likely that the radiation levels went up by a factor of 7 or 10 at the very least.

As another poster pointed out - placing 400 tons of U-238 in an area is not as bad as (for example) giving them a bunch of banana's..... Or building granite builings (which has very high levels of natural uranium - to include the more radioactive isotopes.)

Originally posted by cyberdude78
So the bombing Nagasaki or Hiroshima (which ever was first) produced no side effects. Uranium 238 was the material used for the first bomb dropped on Japan. This one was nick named fat boy for its enormous size. The second bomb dropped used plutononium. Trust me these produced the first one did produce side effects. But I will agree bagdads radiation couldn't have got that high from DU.

This is completely wrong. U-238 is not fissile (in other words, it CAN NOT be used to make an atomic bomb). In fact, depleted uranium is a byproduct of procedures used to purify fissile Uranium (233 or 235 - which are much more radioactive).

The first bomb was actually nicknamed "little boy", and was made using very pure U-235. The second bomb (fat man) was made using Pu-239.

Originally posted by PurdueNuc

Originally posted by cyberdude78
Uranium 238 was the material used for the first bomb dropped on Japan. This one was nick named fat boy for its enormous size. The second bomb dropped used plutononium.

Whoa, history police, back the airplane up! The FIRST bomb dropped on Japan (Hiroshima) was "Little Boy," and it was a gun-type bomb made up of highly enriched uranium (>80% U-235). By gun-type I mean that it had the uranium separated into two subcritical assemblies, and essentially fired one at the other.

The SECOND bomb, "Fat Man," was dropped on Nagasaki, and it did use plutonium (mostly Pu-239). It was an implosion-type bomb, similar to the "Trinity" test in Nevada and all modern weapons.

More Info

Depleted uranium is only slighly radioactive, but it is very toxic as mentioned above. Also, it does make an excellent radiation shield.

Correct, E_T, U-238 decays via alpha decay. An alpha particle is a helium-4 nucleus, and can be very damaging to cells. Also, as E_T said, a thin layer of dead skin cells is enough to stop one. However, I should point out that one gram of U-238 has an activity of only 0.3 microCuries. For comparison, one gram of the potassium-40 that can be found in a banana has an activity of 7.0 microCuries.

[edit on 7/1/2004 by PurdueNuc]

[edit on 7/1/2004 by PurdueNuc]

I stand corrected.

Ok well although its not as radioactive as say plutonium there is some radioactivity. But I would think that it would produce some side effects after thousands of rounds have been fired. Due to the unreliability of the facts i'm going to stay neutral on this subject. However I think perhaps an alternative high denisty material should be used just to be on the safe side of things.

Originally posted by WestPoint23
They only use DU if they are going to face a large amount of tanks and armored vehicle because DU goes through armor like a hot knife through butter but I don't think it is that radioactive .

supposedly theres the debris from the impact of the DU rounds on the armor that leave a little residual radiation

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
I dont know about this video it does not state where any of these facts came from.Those could have been pictures of babies from Chernobyl how are you supose to know? Depleted uranium is a iffy topic though some people claim it is the cause of the so called Gulf War syndrome. Im not really sure why we use it as compared to say tungsten a equally hard metal its cheaper then tungsten maybe?

We use it because it is so abundant:

Uranium is a naturally-occurring element found at low levels in virtually all rock, soil, and water. It is considered to be more plentiful than antimony, beryllium, cadmium, gold, mercury, silver, or tungsten and is about as abundant as arsenic or molybdenum.

en.wikipedia.org...

It is also just as dense as Tungsten - Tungsten density: 19250 kg/m3; Uranium density: 19050 kg/m3

en.wikipedia.org...

We use Tungsten in consumer products more than we use Uranium (hence, it would be a problem if we had a low supply of Tungsten). Actually, do you know of any consumer products that use Uranium? (I can't think of any). :-D It makes more sense - even if it is harmful to one's health.



[edit on 7-1-2004 by EmbryonicEssence]

Originally posted by EmbryonicEssence

Actually, do you know of any consumer products that use Uranium? (I can't think of any). :-D It makes more sense - even if it is harmful to one's health.

There are quite a few consumer products that have uranium in them. Here are just a few:

Smoke detectors
Watches and clocks
Ceramics
Glass
Fertilizer
Gas Lantern Mantles

This info is in a pdf format here

Here are uses specifically for DU:

It primarily finds application as ballast in commercial aircraft and ships because of its high density and in the manufacture of pigments and glazes. Other relatively minor consumer product uses include incorporation into dental porcelain used for false teeth to simulate the fluorescence of natural teeth and in uranium-bearing reagents used in chemistry laboratories.

This was taken from here

[edit on 7-1-2004 by nyarlathotep]

[We use Tungsten in consumer products more than we use Uranium (hence, it would be a problem if we had a low supply of Tungsten). Actually, do you know of any consumer products that use Uranium? (I can't think of any). :-D It makes more sense - even if it is harmful to one's health.



[edit on 7-1-2004 by EmbryonicEssence]

I've heard small amounts are used in false teeth. Man that would stink if they over did it. Your teeth would glow in the dark. Plus glow in the dark paint is slighty radioactive. I think smoke detectors actually use something called Americuim or something like that.

Originally posted by cyberdude78
I think smoke detectors actually use something called Americuim or something like that.

At least here in Finland.

Sorry I had to be so exact. But wouldn't it stink if the manufactures overdid it on the radioactive materials. Fire would be the least of your worrys if you opened. Then again I think they build them so you cant open them.

Originally posted by cyberdude78
Sorry I had to be so exact. But wouldn't it stink if the manufactures overdid it on the radioactive materials. Fire would be the least of your worrys if you opened. Then again I think they build them so you cant open them.

The thing is that even if the levels were hundreds of times more than the typical smoke detector it wouldn't pose a health risk... (Your exposure would be minimal compared to normal environmental exposure).

If a little bit of extra radiation was that dangerous we would probably know by now (because of the high dosage recieved by pilots/aircrew and people who work in granite/brick buildings)...