Depleted uranium or nuclear waste?
Are the weapons that are made from depleted uranium manufactured from nuclear waste? If this is true how is the military/government allowed to release this waste into the environment?
Answer:
"Depleted Unanium" (or DU) refers to uranium that has had the fissile isotope U-235 removed from it. U-235 is useful for bombs and reactor fuel, so it is concentrated by various uranium enrichment processes (e.g., gaseous diffusion or centrifuge enrichment). Such enrichment produces as its byproduct "depleted uranium", which mostly consists of the stable (non-radioactive) isotope U-238.
All uranium, including DU, is very dense, much denser than even lead. DU is made into bullets because its high density gives it the ability to pierce armor, like the armor on a tank. Armor-piercing rounds are carried by some aircraft that are equipped to be "tank-killers". These rounds may be 20-mm or perhaps 30-mm diameter, which is large for a bullet but small for an artillery shell.
The depleted material left over from uranium enrichment (and there is LOTS of it) isn't really nuclear waste. We usually think of nuclear waste as being highly radioactive, while DU is even less radioactive that natural uranium (because the radioactive fissile U-235 has been taken out). Even though DU is not very radioactive, it is thought to create some health hazard in practice ranges and war zones. Partly this is due to the toxicity of uranium (which is a heavy metal and hard on the kidneys), and partly it's due to the small amounts of radioactivity.
At practice ranges and war zones, most of the DU is in bullets and fragments in the dirt. But when a DU bullet hits a target, some of the DU vaporizes and gets spread around in the environment.
How is it that the military releases DU into the environment? Well, war is hell and a lot of bad stuff happens. Compared to a lot of hazardous materials released by military operations (and industrial operations), DU is not a very great hazard. Cleanup of DU from practice areas and some war zones has taken place, but I an unsure to what extent.
Yes "dirty bombs" are made from nuclear waste. But the government doesnt just throw this stuff in the dump they have secure sites to store it. The problem is they need to store it for so long (100+years) Like most "advances" humans make they tend to not think things through there is NO safe place for this stuff what they need is a way to use it till it is no longer radioactive but that has yet to be discovered.
Your questions is a bit ambiguous.
When uranium is used in a powerplant, the nuclear fuel is
used up ... meaning that the radioactivity is mostly gone
from this fuel - ie. it is not radioactive.
They use this material for artillery because it is very dense
and heavy and makes a big impact when it hits. Remember
in physics momentum = mass * velocity, and force is the
change in momentum, so the more mass you can pack into
a shell the bigger hole it will make when it hits.
Uranium is heavier than lead, so it works the best for this
use ... and it is a very common element in the Earth's
crust.
You seems to be asking if it is true whether the government
allows this waste into the environment ... the answer is in
a way yes, like they allow lead into the environment when you
fire a bullet. It is not dangerous as they say it is. Lead was
dangerous because it was all over in lead paint, and chemicals
in human's environments.
Depleted uranium is only in the areas where they was
military actions, localized and not in the drinking water or
food. The web sites that talk about the horror's of depleted
uranium are total BS, read about this.
Again, just to be crystal clear ... depleted uranium is not radioactive ... it is technically not radioactive waste, but
it is a toxic metal, much like lead.
Our government, like many others, produced "Nuclear Weapons". We developed like they did and do Enriched uranium for these weapons. Depleted uranium is uranium that has served its useful life in a nuclear reactor for energy generation (rather simple process once the uranium is manufactured to the right quality level). But the uranium in weapons when disassembled, is altered when transferred to energy uses, if it is used, most of the material is broken down for storage (millions of years of future storage). Otherwise our government is temporarily storing it until we have a more permanent facility made. A great site to learn all this is www.doe.gov check out the history and science areas they provide. Granted we all may not agree with our government's involvement, handling, enrichment, weapons or power uses of Nuclear material, it is very important that we all understand our government's history on the matter and monitor it on it's future. We are the government, and if we as individuals, do not take an active role in it, then we have earned no right to say "I told you so" when things don't go the way we want them too.
You are asking the right questions.
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Answer:
"Depleted Unanium" (or DU) refers to uranium that has had the fissile isotope U-235 removed from it. U-235 is useful for bombs and reactor fuel, so it is concentrated by various uranium enrichment processes (e.g., gaseous diffusion or centrifuge enrichment). Such enrichment produces as its byproduct "depleted uranium", which mostly consists of the stable (non-radioactive) isotope U-238.
All uranium, including DU, is very dense, much denser than even lead. DU is made into bullets because its high density gives it the ability to pierce armor, like the armor on a tank. Armor-piercing rounds are carried by some aircraft that are equipped to be "tank-killers". These rounds may be 20-mm or perhaps 30-mm diameter, which is large for a bullet but small for an artillery shell.
The depleted material left over from uranium enrichment (and there is LOTS of it) isn't really nuclear waste. We usually think of nuclear waste as being highly radioactive, while DU is even less radioactive that natural uranium (because the radioactive fissile U-235 has been taken out). Even though DU is not very radioactive, it is thought to create some health hazard in practice ranges and war zones. Partly this is due to the toxicity of uranium (which is a heavy metal and hard on the kidneys), and partly it's due to the small amounts of radioactivity.
At practice ranges and war zones, most of the DU is in bullets and fragments in the dirt. But when a DU bullet hits a target, some of the DU vaporizes and gets spread around in the environment.
How is it that the military releases DU into the environment? Well, war is hell and a lot of bad stuff happens. Compared to a lot of hazardous materials released by military operations (and industrial operations), DU is not a very great hazard. Cleanup of DU from practice areas and some war zones has taken place, but I an unsure to what extent.
Yes "dirty bombs" are made from nuclear waste. But the government doesnt just throw this stuff in the dump they have secure sites to store it. The problem is they need to store it for so long (100+years) Like most "advances" humans make they tend to not think things through there is NO safe place for this stuff what they need is a way to use it till it is no longer radioactive but that has yet to be discovered.
Your questions is a bit ambiguous.
When uranium is used in a powerplant, the nuclear fuel is
used up ... meaning that the radioactivity is mostly gone
from this fuel - ie. it is not radioactive.
They use this material for artillery because it is very dense
and heavy and makes a big impact when it hits. Remember
in physics momentum = mass * velocity, and force is the
change in momentum, so the more mass you can pack into
a shell the bigger hole it will make when it hits.
Uranium is heavier than lead, so it works the best for this
use ... and it is a very common element in the Earth's
crust.
You seems to be asking if it is true whether the government
allows this waste into the environment ... the answer is in
a way yes, like they allow lead into the environment when you
fire a bullet. It is not dangerous as they say it is. Lead was
dangerous because it was all over in lead paint, and chemicals
in human's environments.
Depleted uranium is only in the areas where they was
military actions, localized and not in the drinking water or
food. The web sites that talk about the horror's of depleted
uranium are total BS, read about this.
Again, just to be crystal clear ... depleted uranium is not radioactive ... it is technically not radioactive waste, but
it is a toxic metal, much like lead.
Our government, like many others, produced "Nuclear Weapons". We developed like they did and do Enriched uranium for these weapons. Depleted uranium is uranium that has served its useful life in a nuclear reactor for energy generation (rather simple process once the uranium is manufactured to the right quality level). But the uranium in weapons when disassembled, is altered when transferred to energy uses, if it is used, most of the material is broken down for storage (millions of years of future storage). Otherwise our government is temporarily storing it until we have a more permanent facility made. A great site to learn all this is www.doe.gov check out the history and science areas they provide. Granted we all may not agree with our government's involvement, handling, enrichment, weapons or power uses of Nuclear material, it is very important that we all understand our government's history on the matter and monitor it on it's future. We are the government, and if we as individuals, do not take an active role in it, then we have earned no right to say "I told you so" when things don't go the way we want them too.
You are asking the right questions.
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