Depleted Uranium. Some facts from the NRPB..
[Note the NRPB is the UK radiological protection board. It's risk factors have to comply and compare to normal health hazards in UK working life. That said, it's chief executive in the 1980's (when I went on a course there) was some guy who did experiments with radioactive sources to find out where various sources of drinking water came from in the 1950's. There were some cancer clusters etc... but nothing of "statistical significance" unless you got a cancer of course. Final note... they have to be very fair and accurate... too many science trained minds watching them imho. OTOH Their training came in very handy when I had a new born daughter during the Chernobyle accident]
nrpb.org
How Radioactive Is Depleted Uranium?
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NRPB > FAQ > Depleted Uranium >
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DU is less radioactive than natural uranium because it has less of the more radioactive isotopes, uranium-234, and uranium-235, per unit weight than does natural uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) defines DU as a low specific activity material. Specific activity (the activity in becquerels per unit mass) is used as a measure of how radioactive something is. An activity of one becquerel (Bq) means on average one radioactive decay takes place per second. The specific activity of uranium in DU is about 15 Bq per mg (1 milligram, mg, is 0.001 g) compared with 25.4 Bq per mg for natural uranium. If the activity of the decay products is also included, then the value for specific activity is higher. Plutonium (for example, plutonium-239) has a much higher specific activity of about 2,300,000 Bq per mg while granite has an activity of 0.00005–0.0005 Bq per mg of granite.
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15 Bq per milligram. Ok thats 15000 Bq per gram of DU. That is a radioactive hazard in my book. By comparison the first rain that came down in Scotland after the Chernobyle accident had radioactive rates of 120,000 Bq per ml (gram) from my recollection. People living in Scotland have a slighly higher cancer rate because of radioactive granite in the region. See above for radioactivity rates. In sealed form DU is probably safe if handled correctly. In unsealed form where it can be ingested it would be regarded as dangerous imho. |
