RE: DU in the Balkans

["Weiner, Ruth" <rfweine@sandia.gov>]

Not a direct answer to your question, but DU is not necessarily just
naturally present uranium isotopes.  The definition of DU is uranium having
less than the natural concentration of U-235 (about 0.7%), but this
definition says nothing about the concentration of other U isotopes.  

Ruth F. Weiner, Ph. D.
Sandia National Laboratories 
MS 0718, POB 5800
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0718
505-844-4791; fax 505-844-0244
rfweine@sandia.gov

-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Hypes [mailto:phypes@lanl.gov]
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 1999 10:24 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: DU in the Balkans


I wonder how they determined that their readings were from the use
of DU munitions during the war?  Does anyone have any details about
the measurements, or even know if there are records of measurements
from before the war?

They say "depleted uranium;"  discriminating between natural uranium
and depleted uranium from an air sample could be rather tricky, unless
the sample has quite a lot of material on it.  The enrichment (positive
or negative) of uranium can be determined by chemical analysis, low
resoluton gamma spec, or high resolution gamma spec.  Of these, only
chemical analysis and high resolution gamma spec would have the
necessary precision to discriminate between natural and depelted
uranium.  DU has a fairly low specific activity.  If the levels they are
seeing do not constitute "alarming evidence of contamination," I wonder
if they have enough material to get a good isotopic breakdown.

I would expect resuspension of DU to be minimal in the Balkan climate.
Could they be seeing natural uranium and assuming it's DU?

Does anyone have experience getting precise uranium isotopics from
samples of airborne particles?


At 06:10 PM 7/28/99 -0500, you wrote:
'Radioactive air pollution' as a result of the use of depleted
uranium-tipped
shells during the Kosovo conflict has been detected, but no 'alarming
evidence of contamination' has yet been found by UN experts who have
started field work in the region.
___________________________________________________________
Philip Hypes
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Safeguards Science and Technology Group (NIS 5)
(505) 667-1556  phypes@lanl.gov

Opinions expressed are purely my own unless otherwise noted

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