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Article: Depleted uranium: weapon of war.(Biodevastation)
- Article from:
- Synthesis/Regeneration
- Article date:
- September 22, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 WD Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Uranium is a naturally occurring element that is both weakly radioactive and a toxic heavy metal. Naturally occurring uranium contains two main radioactive isotopes: U-238 (99.3%), and U-235 (0.7%). When uranium is "enriched" to make an A-bomb (which requires lots of U-235), the leftover "depleted uranium" (DU) is 99.8% U-238 and retains about 60% of the radioactivity that was present in the original natural uranium.[1, pg. 3]
Depleted uranium is created by "uranium enrichment" plants that process natural uranium to extract U-235, but those same plants also may process spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power reactors. For this reason, some DU is known to be ...