Depleted Uranium...

[eskimo2]

Originally posted by Hawco
I would have posted some pics to show you boys, but the ex wife threw all my pic albums out in the trash.

I guess that's part of the reason why she's an ex.  Or is your avatar really you?

[Maverick]

Originally posted by dmf
I just don't want to live around any of that stuff, I have to think about my daughter, trust me if its dangerous, she'll find it.

Unless she is going to go play on blown up tanks and other vehicles in Iraq I think you can rest easy. The practice ammo used on the ranges by tanks etc. is not DU it's just steel because it's cheaper.

[dmf]

Well considering where I live I don't think she'll be around a tank anytime soon. Now if  Hornet falls out of the sky on final into Oceana then we might have a problem at the playground.

[Hornet33]

Originally posted by Hawco
We were just told not to go near any Iraqi tanks etc that had been taken out, had some sort of idea that it was due to DU rounds but I'm glad I listened, Couple of boys went poking around, dunno if they are still ok or not though.
You should have seen the road going from Kuwait up to Basra, mile after mile of hulks, everything from mercedes limos to Tanks to APC's etc, incredible to think that so much damage could have been done in so short of a time, I would have posted some pics to show you boys, but the ex wife threw all my pic albums out in the trash.

Were the bodies still there when you went down that road? We had to put our gas masks on when we went through because the smell of rotting, burned flesh was just overpowering. Puked my guts out halfway down that road from the smell. Was pretty awfull to look at. They were just starting the cleanup on the south end of that mess when we rolled through.

By the way Hawco, what unit where you with over there?

I was A btry 1/158th Field Artillery (MLRS) Ammo Platoon. I think we were attached to the 42nd Field Artillery Brigade at that point. Not real sure since we bounced around so much. We were the only National Guard MLRS unit in theater so we got handed off to a bunch of different units during the ground war. Fired a bunch of rockets though. 798 from my battery alone if my memory serves me correctly. We were some busy folks over there.

[Hawco]

I was attached to the Royal Scots who were in turn attached to the 7th armoured brigade.
But as usual it was a mix mash of everyone and everything just piled all together.
Think I remember those MLRS hornet, is that the big trucks with the rox onboard ?
We were there not long after the flyboys had done their thing, think there was some boys from the 1st Marine div too, to be honest, I can't really recall who was where and what, looked like the wacky races going on, everything from Warriors to Humvees and Bradleys, couple of Challengers all mixed in and heading the same way.

[bozon]

Originally posted by dmf
Hmmm I've read the responses to my last post and I kinda think that depleted uranium would  still radioactive enough to kill wouldn't it?

The good thing about radioactive decays is that the amount of radiation a chunk of matter emits is very predictable. It also scales with the total mass, so you can tell exactly how much radiation you'd absorb from 1kg of depleted Uranium 2m from you.

The problem is that I have no idea what is a "healthy" level of radiation. Our body is hit by ionizing radiation all the time due to rather common elements decays and cosmic rays. Our body has significant amount of carbon in it. A given fraction of it is Carbon 14 which is a radioactive element, useful for archaeological dating. The body can deal with a low level of radiation.

So it is all down to the amount of material around you and length of exposure. I wouldn't like to work in an ammo bunker filled with this stuff for years. If there are a few shells scattered in your back yard, I seriously doubt it is less healthy than eating MacDonalds every day and its definitely better than smoking. The army is not known for worrying about the troops health, but if this stuff was really bad to work with, there would have been precautions and warnings.

[ghi]

DU movie

[Fishu]

Originally posted by bozon
The problem is that I have no idea what is a "healthy" level of radiation. Our body is hit by ionizing radiation all the time due to rather common elements decays and cosmic rays. Our body has significant amount of carbon in it. A given fraction of it is Carbon 14 which is a radioactive element, useful for archaeological dating. The body can deal with a low level of radiation.

What matters most with the radiation is what kind of decay it is, that pretty much determines the lethality. Carbon 14 emits beta decay which is not so dangerous to living cells as uranium which can emit gamma - which is the most dangerous type of radiation.

Of course almost anything can be lethal given too much, but most of the natural radiation is of a less dangerous type of radiation and in low quantities.

[bozon]

Uranium decays into Thorium through alpha decay and from there, pretty quickly cascades down to Lead in a series of both beta and alpha decays. The half-life of the products on the way is very short. You get gamma radiation in almost all radioactive decays. All 3 types are dangerous since they are all ionizing. You can argue that particle vs. particle, one is more dangerous than the other, but that just bring you again to the question of quantity.

I don't say that DU is safe. I say it is not automatically dangerous. Probably more poison than radiation source. We are always under the influence of some level of ionizing radiation.

edit:
ghi, that movie is silly.

[VOR]

ghi, where did you find that masterpiece?

[Hornet33]

Originally posted by Hawco
I was attached to the Royal Scots who were in turn attached to the 7th armoured brigade.
But as usual it was a mix mash of everyone and everything just piled all together.
Think I remember those MLRS hornet, is that the big trucks with the rox onboard ?
We were there not long after the flyboys had done their thing, think there was some boys from the 1st Marine div too, to be honest, I can't really recall who was where and what, looked like the wacky races going on, everything from Warriors to Humvees and Bradleys, couple of Challengers all mixed in and heading the same way.

This is the kind of truck I was driving, M985 HEMTT (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck) The rocket pods in this pic are of course empty and the trucks we had were painted Desert Tan but it gives you a real good idea of what I cruised around in over there. Nothing like taking one of these into combat with 10 tons of explosives and solid rocket propelant in the back.

I had a run in with some Royal Scouts. Had one knock on the door to my truck one day telling me I needed to move because a British artillery unit was bringing up some M110A2 8" self propelled howitzers and they wanted to park one about 100 meters behind where my truck was sitting. Needless to say, I vacated the area. You don't want to be in front of an 8" when that sucker goes off.

[Pooh21]

on ghis pic>I find that babyskin vest the evil Mastermind mutant in the middle is wearing to be quite disturbing. Even more so then evilislambaby hitler on the left.

[Hawco]

Originally posted by Hornet33


This is the kind of truck I was driving, M985 HEMTT (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck) The rocket pods in this pic are of course empty and the trucks we had were painted Desert Tan but it gives you a real good idea of what I cruised around in over there. Nothing like taking one of these into combat with 10 tons of explosives and solid rocket propelant in the back.

I had a run in with some Royal Scouts. Had one knock on the door to my truck one day telling me I needed to move because a British artillery unit was bringing up some M110A2 8" self propelled howitzers and they wanted to park one about 100 meters behind where my truck was sitting. Needless to say, I vacated the area. You don't want to be in front of an 8" when that sucker goes off.

That's the trucks Hornet, I remember seeing them swivel out and turn, I remember the guy telling us he had some sort of armoured blinds in the cab? I also remember the Marine guys now, they were part of Task force Ripper.
Our ingress routes were marked as gold, sliver and bronze, further west to you boys, but when the day came, we got pulled here and there and we ended up as some sort of crazy gang ploughing our way forward lol.
We had a mix of American Mp's and British MP's just behind us managing the prisoners as we moved forward, we would move in, secure the objective and then they would show up and start to police the area, we would grab a bite etc and then onwards and upwards as they say.
Feels like yesterday Hornet doesn't it?

[Hornet33]

Sometimes it does. My unit was with the left hook gang, VII Corp for the most part but we did fire some missions in support of the XVIII Airborne Corp while up north. We ended up south of Basra somewhere, then headed back south along the highway after the cease fire. Hung out near the southern oil fields in Kuwait for about 5 days before we headed back into Saudi. If you guys were heading north right up through Kuwait, then I probably passed you going the other way.

The louverd blinds are on the launchers. Here's a good frontal shot of an MLRS Launcher.

[john9001]

google is your friend.

<In military applications, when alloyed, Depleted Uranium [DU] is ideal for use in armor penetrators. These solid metal projectiles have the speed, mass and physical properties to perform exceptionally well against armored targets. DU provides a substantial performance advantage, well above other competing materials. This allows DU penetrators to defeat an armored target at a significantly greater distance. Also, DU's density and physical properties make it ideal for use as armor plate. DU has been used in weapon systems for many years in both applications.
Depleted uranium results from the enriching of natural uranium for use in nuclear reactors. Natural uranium is a slightly radioactive metal that is present in most rocks and soils as well as in many rivers and sea water. Natural uranium consists primarily of a mixture of two isotopes (forms) of uranium, Uranium-235 (U235) and Uranium-238 (U238), in the proportion of about 0.7 and 99.3 percent, respectively. Nuclear reactors require U235 to produce energy, therefore, the natural uranium has to be enriched to obtain the isotope U235 by removing a large part of the U238. Uranium-238 becomes DU, which is 0.7 times as radioactive as natural uranium. Since DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, there is very little decay of those DU materials. >>

according to this , DU weapons are NOT made from old nuke fuel rods (U235), it is made from what is left of natural uranium (U238) after the fuel rods are produced, and is LESS radio active than natural uranium.