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RE: Letter to Congressman McDermott; It Does burn
Thanks
to all for the education. I stand corrected on the properties of
uranium.
the
point was that it seems counter intuitive that something designed to use it's
mass and size to make a hole would significantly lose mass before doing so. Such
that there would be "clouds of uranium circling the earth" (or whatever the
exact quote was in the letter).
It
also occurs to me that DU burning and "stockpiled DU" is a slightly different
situation. This lead me to the dictionary (Australian Concise Oxford), which
tells me that pyrophoric means "liable to ignite spontaneously on exposure to
air." A condition that doesn't seem to need heating. So this lead me to
Google.
Google
found me a link to the US DOE
This
tells me
"Most
metallic uranium is handled in massive forms that do not present a significant
fire risk unless exposed to a severe and prolonged external fire",
and
"Uranium in finely divided form is readily ignitable,
and uranium scrap from machining operations is subject to spontaneous
ignition."
So a
DU rod does not seem, to me, to be a finely divided form of DU. Since these rods
don't spontaneously ignite in air while sitting in the armour vehicle I conclude
the phorphoric properties is suppressed. I wonder if the DU is actually in oxide
form rather than pure metal
I find
it implausible that a significant amount of DU is "finely divided" as the rod
passes through armour. A number of you have stated that the DU rod often
exits and remains substantially whole. The heating of penetrating the armour is
not a really a "severe and prolonged external fire". Then only the DU
rods that remain in a vehicle that burns will be likely to
ignite.
The
DOE document then tells me that
"Once
ignited, massive metal burns very slowly. In the absence of strong drafts,
uranium oxide smoke tends to deposit in the immediate area of the burning
metal."
So the
uranium smoke is inside a vehicle, I expect it would mostly stay
there.
Based
on this, and everyone's input, I say that the statement in the letter that "DU
smoke is released and circles the world, killing everything in it's path" (I'm
paraphrasing because it's just not worth checking the quote) can not be
supported. I would also suggest that because pure DU metal will be burn it does
not support the proposition in this particular situation.
Cameron
PS
Bill gates tells me that pyrophoric should be pyrophobia. Should that be a label
for anti DU people?
In a
message dated 3/7/2003 1:21:40 PM Pacific Standard Time,
andrewsjp@chartertn.net writes:
Sorry, but the DU rounds burn with great
intensity
It sure does. Years back some stockpiled
DU was being relocated at the Nevada Test Site and handled rather casually
until some were dropped onto of others and it ignited. Was not very easy
to extinguish!!
Ted Allen, CHP
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