DEPLETED URANIUM (In small weapons)

When used as projectiles in weapons, depleted uranium is like lead - heavy (lead atomic number 82 - and uranium, even heavier with atomic number 92). - Depleted Uranium is 68.4% denser than lead - and as a waste product from the nuclear industry it is cheap - so it was obviously only a matter of time before some smart-arse would decide that throwing it at the enemy would be a good idea.

                               30mm Depleted Uranium Penetrator Round

Not to get too scientific about this stuff (D.U.) - but it's fair to say while D.U. is without doubt nasty stuff - it's radioactivity is low level at a third to a half that of the natural uranium ore that is in the ground. - However it is around a million times more chemically toxic than its radiological hazard !

Despite that, D.U. has other interesting properties that make it a wee bit special to use in ammunition: While being dense is great - it is also self-sharpening and on impact with a hard surface such an armoured vehicle - the projectile nose fractures in such a way that it remains sharp while some of it splinters away - and when it penetrates into the interior of the tank - the D.U. dust burns and ignites fuel and ammunition and kills the crew. - the technical term for this property is 'pyrophoric' meaning that it ignites spontaniously in air when hot.

105mm M900 Depleted Uranium Armour Piercing Fin Stabilise Discarding Sabot - Tracer.

 

Interestingly - under political pressure to cease & desist using D.U. in weapons - other promising 'penetrator' metals were investigated - but both tungsten-cobalt and tungsten-nickel-cobalt alloys were found to also possess extreme carcinogenic properties and said to be worse than D.U.

 

- Just as an aside to cheer you up, - between 1993 and 2005, International Police have reported intercepting at least 16 different shipments of smuggled illegal BOMB- GRADE Uranium and Plutonium - most of which came from the ex-Soviet Union. An estimated 540 tonnes of enriched weapons grade Uranium - enough to build 40,000 nukes, is laying about in poorly secured dumps in the Russian Federation and other States.

Marty.