[ RadSafe ] How tough is it to build a dirty bomb?

[James Salsman]

Twenty years ago this month, the U.S.-lead coalition in Iraq shot
about 320 tons of depleted uranium, mostly as 30 mm rounds, against
targets in Kuwait and Iraq.[1] Coalition soldiers quickly moved in to
hold those positions, where the uranium trioxide dust vapor and mist
had not yet settled.

Gulf War Illness, associated with "exposure to fumes from munitions"
was first recognized in the Navy Seabees.[2] Ten years ago all combat
troops showed greatly increased miscarriage and birth defects,
amounting to about twice as many "moderate to severe" birth defects
among fathers who saw Gulf War combat, and about three times as many
among mothers.[3]

The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses has
referred to that increase in birth defects as "modest" and has implied
that the many epidemiological studies linking uranyl exposure to birth
defects do not exist.[4] No further statistics have been forthcoming
from the Department of Defense's Birth and Infant Heath Registry,
which abruptly stopped publishing in 2002.

In 2003, between 1000 and 2000 tons of depleted uranium munitions were
used in Fallujah, Iraq.[5]  Cancers and infant mortality have since
spiked in Fallujah over nehboring Iraqi cities.[6]

During the 2008 Russian-Georgian border war, both sides had depleted
uranium weapons in their arsenals, but neither side chose to use them.
 Depleted uranium weapons have since been made illegal to manufacture
or transport in Brussels, Belgium, the headquarters of NATO.

Dirty bombs have already been all too common, by the accident of
governments and health physics professionals.

[1] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/du.htm

[2] http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/155/11/1033.full

[3] http://www.annalsofepidemiology.org/article/PIIS1047279701002459

[4] http://www1.va.gov/rac-gwvi/docs/GWIandHealthofGWVeterans_RAC-GWVIReport_2008.pdf

[5] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/apr/25/internationaleducationnews.armstrade

[6] http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/7/2828/

Sincerely,
James Salsman