Depleted Uranium Forums (DU-BBS)

I use the word expert loosely and with tongue firmly in cheek. I would love to be a real expert on radiation, but alas, as an ordinarily typical sod, I can only gain the knowledge that my world affords me. Fortunately these days, we have the Internet. Which is, of course, a double edged sword. As well as granting access to perhaps the better part of the world's accumulated knowledge, it brings eerily similar access to a wealth of dubious information. This is, of course, the rationale behind this Web site - a faith that, through open debate, the truths about complicated issues can become apparent.

Of course we shouldn't produce and use depleted uranium ammunition. But this is not a perfect world, and everybody knows that. The use of depleted uranium is of special concern though, because it is actually happening, shows signs of actually increasing, and many (if not most) people who are aware of it at all believe it is a non-issue as far as rational humanitarian concerns in today's world.

Gee. I'm getting at little off my original topic here. Moving on...

I find I get more info an DU than I can handle. How do I get this information? Certainly not by surfing the Web exclusively. Certainly not by Googling the words "depleted uranium" once in a while. No. The main source I use is the same source that everybody else uses; that is, the news. I simply went to Google News link. From there I could set up a Google News Alert for the words "depleted uranium".

Now I get several emails a week giving me direct links to actual news stories related to DU. For me, that is the most important thing. I can keep up on the current media reality of this subject.

I also subscribe to the DU-WATCH emailng list on Yahoo. This brings in most of the really scandalous reports, and keeps me in touch with the latest controversies in the DU activism scene. Honestly, it's a little much sometimes. And besides, the list owner wouldn't pass on my email announcing this site. Why, I still don't know. Perhaps some people think they're gonna beat the US government at the one-way information game.

With all that, along with randomly visiting some anti-DU sites once in a while, and participating in a few online discussions about DU, I can hardly keep up.

But I am no expert. I mostly feel more eager to have my questions answered than I did before I ever heard of DU. For me this is one issue that really digs down to the bone marrow. Am I really expected to believe that some dirty bombs are worse than others? If radiation lasts so long, doesn't the dropping of a dirty bomb - any kind of dirty bomb - invalidate the very concept of fighting to make the world a better place for our children?

I think this Web site could be a good place too, for people to keep in touch with the latest goings on regarding DU. I hope people will freely post the things they personally find significant. If the only opposition to DU is a bunch of people depending solely on their own librarian skills to gain answers on this most complicated of issues, then we are not fulfilling our duty as human beings. Someone once said, everything is political. With DU it is truly a case of politics meeting physics.

Join in, all. Please.

Beagle: Perhaps the reason for the lack of response from the "DU community" is this: they don't want to debate and discuss it. They want to assume that it is wicked and dangerous, and then to hunt for reasons to buttress their opinions.

An analogy: if you went to a fundamentalist Muslim or Christian group, and said, "let's have an interesting discussion on the existence of God", you would not find much of a response.

They would not want to discuss the existence of God -- because the power of their leaders depends on such discussion being out of bounds.

Having had 30 years experience in radiation safety, I can say that most of you have unjustificed fears of depleted uranium.  Everything is a poison and nothing is a poison.  The poison is in the dose.

The poison is in the dose, eh?

Well, is it not true that a single radiated alpha particle can cause a mutation in a single sperm cell that will result in a serious birth defect?

This is true, and you know it.

So your argument is akin to saying that it is not worth worrying about winning the lottery. i.e. the dose involved with inhaled DU dust exposure is too small to worry over.

I hope you are right.

Now, can you show me the math? I don't want to hear about excretion rates. Just within a couple orders of magnitude, can you show me why a few inhaled milligrams of dust is innocuous due to the extremely long half-life of U-238? I suppose you'd also have to explain why the Linear No Threshold (LNT) hypothesis should apply to alpha particles which are much more enormous than the particles I believe that model was designed to describe the effects of.

And while at it perhaps, why isn't it worth worrying about biological accumulation of DU in the food chain?

I keep hearing "Trust me" but I never get the detailed answers I want.

That said, I do agree that it is possible there may be people who gain benefit from demonizing something arbitrarily. But so far I don't see this as the case with the DU activists.