Post by Chuck HarrisPost by Pooh BearPost by Chuck HarrisPost by R10000you could use all that sand you contaminated with depleted-uranium
oxide in iraq & afghanistan,
there's enough of it to raise the whole state well above sea level
and provide free underfloor heating and radiotherapy for
cancerpatients!
Du is not radioactive.
Not so fast. DU is simply *depleted* . It still contains some U235.
Sure, but with a half-life in the billions of years, it doesn't
"Depleted Uranium
In military applications, when alloyed, Depleted Uranium [DU] is ideal for use
in armor penetrators. These solid metal projectiles have 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. Also, DU's density
and physical properties make it ideal for use as armor plate. DU has
been used in weapon systems for many years in both applications.
Depleted uranium results from the enriching of natural uranium
for use in nuclear reactors.
Natural uranium is a slightly radioactive metal that is present in
most rocks and soils as well as in many rivers and sea water. Natural
uranium consists primarily of a mixture of two isotopes (forms) of
uranium, Uranium-235 (U235) and Uranium-238 (U238), in the proportion
of about 0.7 and 99.3 percent, respectively. Nuclear reactors require
U235 to produce energy, therefore, the natural uranium has to be
enriched to obtain the isotope U235 by removing a large part of the
U238. Uranium-238 becomes DU, which is 0.7 times as radioactive as
natural uranium. Since DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, there
is very little decay of those DU materials. "
- http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/du.htm
The above quote has a small error in it. DU is 0.7% as radioactive as
natural uranium. If you take a piece of DU and measure it with a
geiger counter, you will notice *NO* activity above background, which
is of course because U238 isn't a beta or gamma emitter. If you put
it under an alpha counter, it will barely lift the needle off of the
stops in the most sensitive range. You get more activity from the
radium in Brazil nuts.
-Chuck
it is used because it's free and because it burns at over 5000 degrees.