Depleted uranium

Description

Depleted uranium is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope U-235 than natural uranium.. Uses of DU take advantage of its very high density of 19.1 g/cm³. Civilian uses include counterweights in aircraft, radiation shielding in medical radiation therapy and industrial radiography equipment and containers used to transport radioactive materials. Military uses include defensive armor plating and armor-piercing projectiles. Most depleted uranium arises as a byproduct of the production of enriched uranium for use in nuclear reactors and in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Enrichment processes generate uranium with a higher-than-natural concentration of lower-mass uranium isotopes with the bulk of the feed ending up as depleted uranium, in some cases with mass fractions of U-235 and U-234 less than a third of those in natural uranium. U-238 has a much longer halflife than the lighter isotopes, and DU therefore emits less alpha radiation than the same mass of natural uranium: the US Defense Department states DU used in US munitions has 60% the radioactivity of natural uranium. (via Freebase)

Also See

Fallujah

Second Battle of Fallujah

Congenital disorder

Iraq War

United States military in Iraq

Iraq

White phosphorus use in Iraq