Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse.

[#juan]

All DU weapons are "dirty bombs"

Tungsten would be the logical choice for a metal penetrator but the U.S. just happens to have about a million tons of depleted uranium left over from the manufacture of atomic bombs.

The anti-tank round that is fired by the A-10 is simply a DU rod that, at high velocity, goes through a tank like it was butter. That rod also burns as it travels through the air, spreading poisonous, radioactive dust accross the countryside.

650 tons of this material was spread over Iraq.

 

[#juan]

First of all,

I wasn't quoting the site. I was quoting the writer, who's name I gave you in the topic header. Doctor Rokke is well known as an eminent scientist and scholar in the field.

Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD., former Director, U.S. Army Depleted Uranium project

 

[#juan]

freethinker wrote:

Second most reputable source seem to indicate GBU-28 doesn't have DU. Ie Janes combat.

The letters, GBU stand for Guided Bomb Unit. The number 28 indicates the size of the weapon. Are you with me so far? If we add the term "bunker buster", this means it has the DU penetrator.

 

[Freethinker]

RE: Just when we thought

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2005/050428-israel-bunkerbusters.htm

Your article makes it sound like a new purchase specifically for Lebanon. These were actually ordered over a year ago. Critics suspected that they may be used against Irans Nuclear production facilities.

In a bunker buster any DU will remain largely underground and harmless. Background radiation is very minor.

Clearly this big expensive weapon will only be used against the most hardened and identified militant bunkers. I don't have a problem with that.

 

[#juan]

In a bunker buster any DU will remain largely underground and harmless. Background radiation is very minor.

Clearly this big expensive weapon will only be used against the most hardened and identified militant bunkers. I don't have a problem with that.

freethinker you don't seem to even know what the topic is about. Iraq has been turned into a toxic, radioactive, nightmare. Now we want to do the same to Lebanon. Do you have any idea how many innocent kids, or even how many American soldiers have died of the effects of DU contamination? I suppose next, we'll see this crap used on the Palestinians.

Meanwhile keep spouting the pentagon bull that DU is harmless and not dangerous.

 

[Freethinker]

I have read a couple of studies and they seem to agree that background radiation form DU is quite harmless. The dust from incineration is the problem if you breath it in.

Used in a bunker buster the majority of dust should be trapped.

Israel has very few of these weapons compared to the large amounts used in Iraq or even Kosovo. So even if your statements about Iraq being turned into a toxic, radioctive wasteland were accurate (which I doubt), the small amount used by the Israelis would be by comparison inconsequential. It should be easily possible to locate all the spots and do cleanup if required.

This will almost certainly be a weapon reserved for what all sides can agree are for pure military targets. A pure military weapon, designed for a pure military target. Not a problem.

 

[Graeme]

Graeme wrote:

as it turns out the GBU-28 is not meant to be a dirty bomb exactly but the depleted uranium is an extremely effective explosive, becoming extremely hot where by killing just about anyone in the same tunnel system.

I don't know where you get your information but the GBU-28 bunker buster is exactly a dirty bomb. DU is not an explosive but a very effective penetrator. The explosive in a GBU-28 is 650 lbs of tritonal. DU is mainly U-238, which is a chemically toxic, radioactive, poison material with a half life of about four billion years. During the penetration the DU is vaporized. This means the dust from the vaporized DU will still be radioactive, and toxic, and poison, when our sun dies.

I was in the process of learning while I was posting.

here are the reasons for using depleted uranium as the war head.

Density - Depleted uranium is 1.7 times heavier than lead, and 2.4 times heavier than steel.

Hardness - If you look at a Web site like WebElements.com, you can see that the Brinell hardness of U-238 is 2,400, which is just shy of tungsten at 2,570. Iron is 490. Depleted uranium alloyed with a small amount of titanium is even harder.

Incendiary properties - Depleted uranium burns. It is something like magnesium in this regard. If you heat uranium up in an oxygen environment (normal air), it will ignite and burn with an extremely intense flame. Once inside the target, burning uranium is another part of the bomb's destructive power.

-source: howstuffworks.com

as you can see I wasn't completely wrong, just incomplete, much like your post.

(small edit though I should have said "extremely effective IN AN explosive" not an extremely effect explosive... It was late, I wasn't fully awake)

and like I said before it is not MEANT to be a dirty bomb, the radioactive material is distributed underground and the radioactive property is the least of its target's worries, because they are dead due to the explosion and extreme heat many years before any type of cancer can set in.

 

[Hotshot]

Re: RE: Just when we thought

The US dosnt care... they are a bunch of murders.....
and they wonder why there are terrorrists

Don't forget their arrogance and hypocracy.

 

[Lineman]

Health Canada's link
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/radiation/uranium_e.html

If you care to Google you can find hundreds of reports giving credence to either argument. The problem is wading through it all and trying to figure out what is concrete and what is not. Nasty stuff but not quite as widespread as reported. Glad the CF got rid of it though.