[ RadSafe ] Tungsten Alloy Munitions Pose Unforeseen Threat -NIHresearch

[Jaro]

No.
The layered armor on the Abrams tanks, for reasons of fabrication
feasibility, results in the conspicuous angular appearance of the tank
(especially the turret).
The Soviet-era Iraqi tanks hit by DU rounds in Kuwait or Iraq itself have
the old-style rounded steel armor.
Anyway, the tank is incapacitated with just one, or a few hits -- whereas
the great majority of DU rounds (typically from the gattlig gun of the A-10
"Warthog") end up in the ground, entombing themselves with very little
damage, as you can see from the photos of DU rounds collected by IAEA teams
in Bosnia, for example.
They appear to have made a big deal out of this project, but I doubt very
much that these small chunks of corroded DU metal are anywhere near as
radioactive as uranium minerals collected by "rockhounds."

 Jaro
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-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl]On Behalf
Of farbersa at optonline.net
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 9:43 PM
To: James Salsman
Cc: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Tungsten Alloy Munitions Pose Unforeseen
Threat -NIHresearch


Hi all:
Regarding the statement by James Salsman that tungsten alloy antitank rounds
are not pyrophoric and therefore of little hazard to soldiers vs. DU, it
should be noted that the protective armor on the Abrams tanks consist of
multiple layers of depleted uranium between steel sheets. I assume tanks
being attacked by US forces have similar depleted uranium armor. Anyone know
if this is so??

So when a 102 mm antitank shell hits a tank armored with DU,  I would think
the resultant airborne particulate loading is roughly similar as far as DU
for both DU rounds and tungsten alloy rounds [due to the effect of the round
on the DU armor shields]. The exception is  that tungsten rounds likely
results in airborne tungsten dusts and shrapnel not seen with the DU round
alone.

Stewart Farber
===============

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