April 30, 2005

DEPLETED URANIUM (DU)

URANIUM

Uranium is the most useful naturally occurring fissile fuel. In its highly enriched form (HEU) B that is, uranium containing 90 percent uranium-235 B it provides the core of many of today=s nuclear weapons. For comparison, civilian nuclear power reactors usually use uranium containing 10 percent or less uranium-235 (Hall, 2004).

THE DU NUCLEAR FUEL CHAIN^*

Uranium Ore ------> ANatural@ Uranium ------> 1. U-238 [ADepleted@ Uranium (DU)]

100,000 kg 100 kg 99.0 kg

(Half-life: 4,500,000,000 years)

2. U-235 (AEnriched@ Uranium)

0.7 kg

(Half-life: 700,000,000 years)

3. U-234

0.3 kg

(Half-life: 250,000 years)

______________________________

^* van de Keur; Hall, 2004

WORLD B STOCKPILES OF DU

World B Storage of Depleted Uranium (DU), March, 2001

Country

Location

Amount Stored

(kilograms)

Hiroshima Bomb

Radioactivity

Equivalent^*

United States

Paducah, Kentucky,

Portsmouth, Ohio,

and other locations

860,000,000 ^(a)

157,036,000

France

Bessines-sur-Gartempe (Haute Vienne) (near Limoges) ^(b)

119,900,000

21,893,740

United Kingdom

Germany

The Netherlands

Locations ? ^(c)

38,000,000

6,938,800

Total

1,017,900,000

185,868,540

^* Hall, 2005, p. 4. At the October 2003, World Uranium Weapons Conference, in Hamburg, Germany, Professor Katsuma Yagasaki, of Ryukyus University, Okinawa, Japan, reported his estimate that every ton (1,000 kilograms) of DU deposited releases the radioactivity equivalent of 182.6 Hiroshima bombs (Hanson, p. 1; International Criminal Tribunal, p. 36; Levine, p. 1; Phillips, p. 50).

^(a) The Uranium Medical Research Centre estimates Aover one million tons@ (more than 1,000,000,000 kilograms) (UMRC, p. 2).

^(b) Handled by Cogema, a leading nuclear fuel cycle company.

^(c) Handled by Urenco, a leading uranium enrichment company.

UNITED STATES B DU USE DURING WARS

United States B DU Use during Wars^(a)

Year

Conflict

Amount of

DU fired

(kilograms)

Hiroshima

Bomb

Equivalent^*

1991-2003

Iraq and Kuwait (Operation Desert Storm)

Iraq (ANo-Fly Zones@) (1992-2003)

Iraq (Operation Desert Fox) (1998)

800,000

146,080

1994-1995; 1999

Yugoslavia and Macedonia ^(b)

100,000

18,260

2001

Afghanistan

800,000

146,080

2003

Iraq

2,410,000

440,066

Total

4,110,000

750,486

(a) Hall, 2005, p. 9 (various references).

(b) Macedonia, according to Johnson, p. 7.

UNITED STATES B DU TESTING INSIDE THE CONTINENTAL U.S.

United States B DU Testing inside the Continental U.S., as of March 2001

State

Proving Ground/

Test Firing Range

Years during

which DU

Testing

occurred

DU fired

(kilograms)

Florida

Elgin Air Force Base

1. Gunnery Ballistic Facility

2. High Explosive Test Area

1973-1978

2001

100,000

New Mexico

1. Los Alamos National Laboratory

2. NM Institute of Mining & Technology

Since 1972

100,000

Maryland

Aberdeen Proving Ground

70,000

Indiana

Jefferson Proving Ground

1982-1988

69,000

Nevada

Nellis Air Force Base

Since 1982

27,800

California

China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center

10 years

11,300

Vermont

Ethan Allen Firing Range

1969-1973

4,500

Missouri

Lake City Ammunition Plant

Until 1985

3,500

Total

386,100

Hiroshima Bomb

Radiation Equivalent^*

70,502

WORLD B ACCIDENTS WITH DU WEAPONRY, AS OF 2001:

July 1991: A munitions fire at the U.S. Army base in Doha, Kuwait, released about 3,500 kilograms of DU B the radiation equivalent of 639 Hiroshima bombs.

February 8, 1998: A fire occurred at the Royal Ordnance Special Metal factory, Featherstone, Staffordshire, Great Britain. No data are available about the amount of DU released.

UNITED STATES B TESTING OUTSIDE THE CONTINENTAL U.S.

DU Testing outside the Continental U.S., as of March 2001

Country

Years during

which DU

Testing

occurred

Location

DU fired

(kilograms)

Panama

Sides of the Panama Canal

Japan

1995-1996

100 km West of Okinawa Island

251

Puerto Rico

1999

Vieques Island

Total

285

Hiroshima Bomb

Radiation Equivalent^*

COUNTRIES OTHER THAN THE U.S. B DU USE DURING WARS

Countries other than the U.S. B DU Use during Wars, as of March, 2001

Country

Year

Conflict

Amount of DU fired

(kilograms)

Israel

1973

1982

Yom Kippur War

Invasion of South Lebanon

United Kingdom

1982

Falklands War

PLUTONIUM

Plutonium is present in very small quantities in association with uranium ores. Mostly artificially made, it is a useful fissile fuel, plutonium-239 most commonly providing the core of today=s nuclear weapons (Hall, 2004).

3. Civilian Nuclear Power Plants:

On December 31, 1995, the world had approximately 437 civilian nuclear power plants, 18 of which were 30 years or older. As of that date, 200,000 kilograms of plutonium had been extracted from their spent fuel. Assuming, as is true for nuclear warheads, that each 4.5 kilograms of plutonium has the explosive yield of 18.06 Hiroshima bombs, this represents (200,000 / 4.5 x 18.06) = 802,667 Hiroshima bombs (Hall, 2004).

These 200,000 kilograms of plutonium equal 33,000,000,000 fatal doses B enough to kill the world population of six billion six times.

2. World Nuclear Arsenal:

On December 31, 1998, the world had approximately 36,000 nuclear warheads, each containing a typical 4.5 kilograms of plutonium B the explosive yield of 18.06 Hiroshima bombs. These 36,000 nuclear warheads, therefore, represented the explosive yield of (36,000 x 18.06) = 650,160 Hiroshima bombs (Caldicott; Hall, 2004).

The 4.5 kilograms of plutonium which each warhead contained represent 375,000 doses which, if inhaled, would be fatal within 18 months.

SUMMARY

WORLD NUCLEAR FUEL, AVAILABLE AND RELEASED

World Nuclear Fuel, in Hiroshima Bomb Radiation Equivalents

Nuclear Fuel

Available

Released

Total

Percent

of Total

Depleted Uranium (DU)^(a)

Stored (World, 2001)

Fired in War (U.S., 2005)

Testing inside the

Continental U.S. (U.S. 2001)

Released in Accidents

(World, 2001)

Testing outside the

Continental U.S. (U.S. 2001)

185,868,540

750,486

70,502

639

185,868,540

750,486

70,502

639

98.8

0.4

0.04

0.000,3

0.000,03

Plutonium^(b)

Extracted in Civilian Nuclear Power Plants (World, 1995)

Nuclear Warheads

(World, 1998)

802,667

650,160

802,667

650,160

0.4

Total (Hiroshima Bomb Radiation Equivalents)

187,321,367

821,679

188,143,046

100

Percent Available and Released

99.6

0.4

100

^(a) Hall, 2005, p. 4. At the October 2003, World Uranium Weapons Conference, in Hamburg, Germany, Professor Katsuma Yagasaki, of Ryukyus University, Okinawa, Japan, reported his estimate that every ton (1,000 kilograms) of DU deposited releases the radioactivity equivalent of 182.6 Hiroshima bombs (Hanson, p. 1; International Criminal Tribunal, p. 36; Levine, p. 1; Phillips, p. 50).

Hall, 2005.

CONCLUSIONS

Actual and Potential Radiation Today

The 2005 world population is 6,446,131,400 (U.S. Bureau of the Census).

Worldwide, we have released in the order of magnitude of (821,679 / 6,446,131,400) x 100,000 = 13 Hiroshima bomb equivalents per 100,000 persons.

Worldwide, we have in storage in the order of magnitude of (187,321,367 / 6,446,131,400) x 100,000 = 2,906 Hiroshima bomb equivalents per 100,000 persons.

Casualties from the Hiroshima Bomb

At 8:16 on the morning of August 6, 1945, when, flying the Enola Gay, Paul Tibbets, dropped Little Boy over Hiroshima, 100,000 died within one minute, another 100,000 died within weeks from radiation sickness, and during the next 12 years (1945-1957), the incidence of congenital abnormalities in the City was 14,286 per 100,000 births (Lifton, pp. xii and 231; Lindqvist, pp 111-112, 147 and 175).

The Los Alamos National Laboratory

A March 1, 1991, memo from Lt. Col. M. V. Ziehmn of Los Alamos National Laboratory, to Major Larsson of the Studies and Analysis Branch, entitled, AThe Effectiveness of Depleted Uranium Penetrators,@ states (Bein, p. 16; International Criminal Tribunal, p. 33):

AIt is believed that DU penetrators were very effective against Iraqi armor. However, assessments of such will have to be made. There has been, and continues to be, a concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment. Therefore, if no one makes a case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus be deleted from the arsenal. If DU penetrators prove their worth during our recent combat activities, then we should assure their future existence (until something better is developed) through Service/Department of Defense proponency [sic]. If proponency [sic] is not garnered, it is possible that we stand to lose a valuable combat capability. I believe we should keep this sensitive issue in mind whenever action reports are written.@

REFERENCES

Unless specified otherwise, data are from:

van de Keur, Henk, The Laka Foundation, Documentation and Research Centre on Nuclear Energy, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, AWhere and how much Depleted Uranium has been fired? B A March 2001 Update of a Workshop held at the Campaign against Depleted Uranium (CADU) Conference, Manchester, England, November 4, 2000,@ pp. 1-4. Reprinted at

http://www.laka.org/teksten/Vu/where-how-much-01/main.html.

Other sources, as specified:

Bein, Piotr and Karen Parker, ABackground of the Issue,@ World Uranium Weapons Conference, October 16-19, 2003. Reprinted at

http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/background.htm.

Caldicott, Helen, The New Nuclear Danger B George W. Bush=s Military-industrial Complex (The New Press, New York, N.Y.), 2002.

Hall, Francoise,

ANuclear Power B An Infallible Technology for Infallible Humans?@ May 6, 2004, 16 pages.

ASilent Omnicide B The Destruction of the Human Gene Pool,@ April 16, 2005, corrected April 26, 2005, 13 pages.

Hanson, David, AWeapons of Mass Destruction B The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,@ Virginia Western Community College, November 1998. Reprinted at

http://www.vw.cc.va.us/vwhansd/HIS122/Hiroshima.html.

International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan at Tokyo, The People vs. George Walker Bush, President of the United States of America, Final Written Opinion of Judge Niloufer Bhagwat, March 10, 2004. Reprinted at

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Afghanistan-Criminal-Tribunal10mar04.htm.

Johnson, Larry, Foreign Desk Editor, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle, WA, AIraqi Cancers, Birth Defects blamed on U.S. Depleted Uranium,@ November 12, 2002, p. 7. Reprinted at

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/95178_du12.shtml

Levine, Philip, AA Photo-Essay on the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.@ Reprinted at

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levine/bombing.htm.

Lifton, Robert and Greg Mitchell, Hiroshima in America B A Half Century of Denial (Avon Books, New York, N.Y.), 1995.

Lindqvist, Sven, A History of Bombing (published as Nu dog du by Albert Bonniers Forlag, Sweden, 1999), translated by Linda Rugg (The New Press, New York, N.Y.), 2001.

Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored, Censored 2005 B The Top 25 Censored Stories (Seven Stories, New York, N.Y.), 2004.

United States Bureau of the Census, International Data Base

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/worldpop.html

Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC), ABasics about Uranium and Depleted Uranium (DU) and its Impact on Human Health@ (no date), at

http://www.umrc.net/os/duBasics.asp.

***