[ RadSafe ] RE: [RadSafe ] DU Disposal in Utah/Anti-DU Campaigns in General

[Roger Helbig]

Franz,

The amount of DU that has been used as ammunition is miniscule when compared
to the amount of DUF6 that exists.  The ammunition was not developed as a
means of disposal.  The ammunition was developed because at the time,
nothing else worked.  There was no armor piercing projectile that would
penetrate modern Soviet armor in the 1970s.  Everything else that was tested
did not penetrate.  Since the 1970's new types of armor have been developed
and so have new types of armor piercing projectiles.  DU may in fact be
close to obsolete against these new materials.  The anti-DU crusade
continues to rail against the use of DU in Kuwait/Iraq against Saddam's
apparently formidable battle hardened armored forces in the Gulf War in
1991, against Serbian armor and artillery using the A-10 in the Balkans in
the 1990s and against Saddam's armored forces in 2003.  They claim it has
been used extensively in Afghanistan when it has not been.  I expect, but
can not prove it one way or the other, that DU has never been used in
Afghanistan since the A-10 did not confront the few tanks that the Taliban
had inherited from the Soviet era and those were destroyed by conventional
bombing by the B1 bomber in 2001.  The anti-DU crusade claims, based on
false reports from Asaf Durakovic and his Uranium Medical Research Centre
team mate Ted Weymann plus the constant agitation of the outright scam
artist Mohammed Daud Miraki, a Soviet era Afghan refugee in Chicago, that DU
was used in the extensive bombing of the Tora Bora caves hiding Al Quaeda,
are false.  No DU has been used in any bomb, but you still see claims made
on a daily basis about DU being "dropped" or being an explosive.  These
constant lies are the basis of the entire International Coalition to Ban
Uranium Weapons; they even coined the term "uranium weapons" because of the
claims that non-depleted uranium was used by Israel since the international
scientific team of the United Nations Environment Programme's Post Conflict
Branch found no DU (no processed uranium) in Lebanon and if deployed to Gaza
will find the same thing in Gaza.  Now, it would probably be physically
impossible to build and field kinetic energy penetrators made out of
enriched uranium; I would expect that masses might approach critical mass or
certainly endanger those who handle it in addition to being prohibitively
expensive.  There is no need, however, for these international campaigners
led by such pseudo scientists as Doug Rokke (he did get a BS in Physics back
in 1975), Leuren Moret (BS, Geology, 1968), Chris Busby, (PhD in something),
Asaf Durakovic (MD), Ted Weymann (no idea), etc. to think rationally; they
do not need to, all they need to do is show the photos of the claimed birth
defects and spin their tall tales on YouTube (millions of hits on hundreds
of video postings), carpet bomb the net, and influence law makers who do not
have a clue what anyone is talking about, but they do not want to be seen as
being "pro-war" or anti-troops and their families, so they enact laws that
really make no sense to rational scientific thought.

Roger Helbig

-----Original Message-----
From: Franz Schönhofer [mailto:franz.schoenhofer at chello.at] 
Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2009 5:05 AM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Cc: 'Roger Helbig'
Subject: [SPAM]AW: [ RadSafe ] DU Disposal in Utah

RADSAFErs,

I have a very simple question regarding DU. Maybe I miss some point or maybe
I am simply naiv. 

Why is everybody so eager to dispose of DU? Why is much work done to convert
DU-Hexafluoride into a disposable compound? Wouldn't it be better to keep it
for the time, when Pu-breeders will be commercially available? It might be a
commercial question, that at the time being there is enough Pu-239 available
from surplus weapons that no additional Pu-239 is needed? Or is there any
political question like the decision long ago in the USA not to reprocess
nuclear fuel? 

My personal opinion is that the worst option of disposing it of is to
dispose it in form of ammunition at the battle field.....

Best regards,

Franz

Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
MinRat i.R.
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Wien/Vienna
AUSTRIA