what is depleted uranium?

Question

military guns withdepleted uranium

Answer 1

uranium that has been depleated

Answer 2

Depleted Uranium (DU) is uranium remaining after removal of the isotope uranium-235. It is primarily composed of the isotope uranium-238. It is still weakly radioactive.

Since Uranium is a very dense material, it has been used in armor piercing shells for both aircraft and tanks. Since it's more dense than lead, it easily goes through the hardened steel. Medical issues have been reported by servicemen who have been exposed to the uranium dusts and possible long term radiation effects.

Answer 3

Depleted uranium is uranium that has been used for industrial purposes, but its radioactivity has dropped off to the point where it isn't useful any longer.

It is used to make bullets of all kinds because it is the heaviest relatively cheap element, and so gives a bigger bang for the buck. Newton is at work here - f=ma - force equals mass times acceleration.

Answer 4

DU is a really hard, really heavy metal. We have tank rounds with DU that are Called Sabots, actually called Hyper Velocity Fin Stabilized Armor Piercing Discarding Sabots or just Sabots Pronounced "Say-Bo" for short.
The Sabot round is just a rod of DU encased in an alluminum dart shaped projectile and it has Sabot Petals packed around it. Since the Sabot itself is far smaller than the 120mm diameter of the guntube's bore, the Sabot Petals are packed around the Sabot projectile to fill in the space and prevent gas leakage. When the Sabot exists the guntube, the petals fall off and the Sabot itself is moving extremely fast. The kinetic energy of the Sabot hitting another tank causes the enemy tank to just come apart. The Sabot itself just goes through the target like a bullet through paper and does not explode. If the target is a soft target, like an armored personnel carrier, the Sabot has little effect unless you're an unlucky infantryman in the path of the Sabot. That's when another round is employed, the HEAT round, High Explosive Anti-Tank.
You may ask, why would a Tank shoot a Sabot round at an APC in the first place, well I'll tell you. Tanks usually have a "Battlecarry", the maingun is loaded and the computer set for a certain type of target, usually another tank since they are the serious threat. If an APC presents itself and you want to clear the maingun fast, shoot the APC with the Sabot first, then finish it up with a HEAT round.
If any enemy infantry try to get away, then we use the coax which doesn't use DU rounds. If we want to conserve coax ammo, then we use the tracks.

Answer 5

when the reactor is at the end of its life we remove the "depleted" uranium. Basically mostly all of it has been fissioned away and you just have the uranium not as an isotope.

Answer 6

Uranium with the 235 isotope removed.

Answer 7

depleted uranium is the opposite of enriched uranium...it gives off less radiation

Answer 8

When uranium is used in nuclear reactors it breaks down from U238 to U235. That is how energy is released. The U235 that is left is very heavy and very dense. It is used in ammo so it can be propelled further, faster, and with more hitting power.