RE: DU in the Balkans

[Glen.Vickers@ucm.com]

There should have been relatively little DU from NATO forces.  We stayed in
the air while the killing was on the ground.  The only rounds that might
have had DU would have been those from a plane's machine gun.  All of your
other munitions, such as missiles, should have been explosive in nature.

I wonder if the ancient T-72 tanks used by the Yugoslav army are even
outfitted for DU rounds?  Even if they were, such an armor piercing round
would have been a waste against civilians.  Any home struck by such a
kinetic energy weapon would most likely have enough structural damage to
warrant removal and reconstruction of the affected parts of the structure.

With all of the real problems in that region, I don't see how this could
make anyone's top 100 list of priorities.  It would be a shame to see
unnecessary hysteria, when there is already so much real tragedy.

Sincerely,
glen
glen.vickers@ucm.com

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Philip Hypes [SMTP:phypes@lanl.gov]
	Sent:	Thursday, July 29, 1999 11:21 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

	
************************************************************************
	The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and
subscription
	information can be accessed at
http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html