Uranium traces found in weapons

[MIannaccone@dhhs.state.nh.us]

By CLARE NULLIS
Associated Press Writer

        GENEVA (AP) - Ammunition tips found at sites targeted by NATO
during the 1999 Kosovo conflict contained traces of enriched
uranium from nuclear reprocessing plants, the U.N. Environment
Program says.
        That finding indicates that at least some of the ``depleted
uranium'' ammunition used by the United States and other NATO
countries may have come from reprocessed nuclear fuel and therefore
may also contain more hazardous plutonium, scientists said. The
news was likely to intensify the controversy raging within NATO
over depleted uranium ammunition, which some European countries
fear could cause cancer or other diseases.
        Depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal, is used in
anti-armor munitions because of its high penetrating power. U.S.
forces fired weapons containing depleted uranium in Bosnia in 1994
and 1995, and in 1999, NATO fired such weapons during its 78-day
bombing campaign in Yugoslavia.
        ``One part, a very small part, has been made out of recycled
nuclear material coming from nuclear reactors and reprocessed,''
said Pekka Haavisto, chairman of the U.N. environment team that
visited Kosovo last year.
        A UNEP statement on Tuesday said the team had found faint traces
of uranium 236, which does not occur naturally but comes from
nuclear power stations.
        ``Everybody knows that U-236 is much more radioactive than
depleted uranium,'' Haavisto told The Associated Press in a
telephone interview, adding that the World Health Organization has
been asked to assess the implications.
        But Haavisto stressed that given the minute trace of the U-236 _
0.0028 percent _ in the samples analyzed, there did not appear to
be any increased risk of cancer.
        ``The amount in the material is so small that at least our
laboratory is saying that this doesn't change the overall picture
of radiological effects,'' he said. He added that the United
Nations wants to await the results of further studies from other
laboratories currently analyzing material before drawing further
conclusions.
        A NATO spokesman said Wednesday the alliance had always accepted
that there were trace amounts of plutonium in depleted uranium but
they caused almost no additional radioactivity.
        The spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to
tests carried out by the U.S. Department of Energy and reported by
the Defense Department last December, which said depleted uranium
munitions could contain a few parts per billion of so-called
transuranics _ plutonium, neptunium and americium.
        That report said the transuranics contributed ``an additional
0.8 percent to the radiation dose from the depleted uranium
itself'' _ an amount it said scientists consider ``insignificant.''
        The initial findings for the new U.N. report came from a
respected Swiss atomic and chemical research laboratory in Spiez.
Based on the findings from the same laboratory, the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology said it was ``highly probable'' that the
ammunition used in Kosovo also contained traces of plutonium.
        ``It is no secret that, after the separation (of plutonium from
uranium), there are always traces of plutonium,'' the institute
said.
        It said that plutonium is about 200,000 times more radioactive
than uranium and its radiotoxicity is about a million times higher.
Even less than a thousandth of a gram of plutonium in the lungs
could cause serious health problems, such as bone and lung tumors,
it said.
        However, the head of the Swiss research laboratory, Bernhard
Brunner, said there was no sign that plutonium had been found.
        ``If there is plutonium, then we will find it,'' Haavisto said.
        Public concern about the munitions has swept Europe in recent
weeks as various nations have reported cancer cases among soldiers
sent to the Balkans as peacekeepers. NATO, though, says an initial
study of health records showed no connection between depleted
uranium munitions and cancer among soldiers who served in the
Balkans.
        In Germany on Wednesday, Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping
called the new depleted uranium reports ``a very serious
suspicion.'' He said the military is investigating.
        Scharping also called in the top U.S. diplomat in Berlin
Wednesday to express concern that the United States isn't telling
its NATO allies everything it knows about depleted uranium
ammunition. He did not elaborate.
        U.S. charge d'affaires Terry Snell responded that Germany is
``receiving all the information that we have,'' embassy spokesman
Mark Smith said.


Mario Iannaccone,
Health Physicist
miannacc@dhhs.state.nh.us

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