Depleted Uranium?

Question

What effects does depleted uranium have on the environment? Is it safe? Also, if possible, please provide sources.

Answer 1

These are two great sites to check out. The second one is in PDF form....good luck.

http://www.miltoxproj.org/depleted_uranium.htm

http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/pub_meet/Depluraniumintro.pdf

Answer 2

Uranium is a heavy metal and poses all the chemical toxicity hazards of any heavy metal. The fact that depleted uranium is depleted doesn't substantially change its environmental impact. The half-lives of uranium isotopes are so long that the radiological health risks of depleted uranium are negligible.

Depleted uranium is entirely safe if handled properly. After all, depleted uranium comes from uranium ore, which is a natural mineral, so it cannot be incompatible with the natural environment. That said, uranium is still a toxic heavy metal, so its ingestion and inhalation needs to be avoided, as is also the case with any other toxic substances that are part of the natural environment.

Answer 3

Depleted Uranium is the residue from uranium Bars that are used in nuclear power stations.
Depleted Uranium has most of it's radioactive Isotope - U235 - degraded to Lead, but still a small residue of U235 remains, making it slightly radioactive, but that level of radioactivity is not really dangerous, unless you sleep over a pile of Depleted Uranium.
But the real danger from Uranium, after it stops being radioactive, is that the Uranium Oxide, that is the result of Uranium burning, is very toxic, and has serious side effects on anybody exposed to it.

Answer 4

Depleted uranium is natural uranium with most of the U235 removed. Natural uranium is a mixture of U238 and U235. The U235 is much more radioactive than the U238, but U238 it is still slightly radioactive.

Answer 5

it unleahes radiation on wildlife, humans, and vegetation