CLIMATE CHANGE = DEPLETED URANIUM
"depleted" uranium
the real "dirty bombs"
In the wake of 9/11, one of the scare campaigns launched by the Bush administration is that terrorists would seek to detonate "dirty bombs" in American cities -- conventional bombs surrounded by radioactive wastes intended to sow panic and dread. But this threat overlooks the fact that the original proposal for "dirty bombs" (as if there's such a thing as a "clean" bomb) was made during World War II by the US military. During the Manhattan Project, the effort to invent nuclear weapons, technicians of death were uncertain if they would be successful in creating weapons of mass destruction. One alternative considered was to drop nuclear waste on Japan but this idea was abandoned when it became clear that the atomic bomb designs they had crafted would work to obliterate cities.
Since the Reagan regime, the US has developed a new form of "dirty bomb" -- weapons containing uranium wastes. These so-called "depleted uranium" shells are used to augment the destructive power of this ordnance. While depleted uranium is not capable of undergoing atomic fission (ie. in a nuclear weapon), it has chemical properties that are useful for the military. Uranium tipped shells are extremely dense (uranium is the heaviest naturally occurring element), which makes it useful to destroy tanks and similar structures. Uranium also bursts into a hot flame upon impact, which has the side effect of generating lots of radioactive dust.
"Depleted" uranium is a term that falsely implies that the material is harmless or at least less toxic. In reality, "depleted" merely means that the isotope Uranium-235 has been reduced. Natural uranium on planet Earth normally is about 99.3% uranium-238, which is non-fissionable, meaning that it cannot be used for nuclear weapons or nuclear power reactors.
Uranium is an element, u-235 and u-238 are different isotopes. An element is determined by the number of positively charged protons in the nucleus (core) of an atom, and there are 92 elements in nature, ranging from hydrogen (1 proton) to uranium (92 protons). This is the "periodic table" that some people may remember from chemistry classes.
Uranium-235 is the main isotope used for bombs and reactors. The "uranium enrichment" procedures used for most types of nuclear power reactors increase the percentage of u-235 in an sample of uranium. The "light water" reactor designs used in the United States need uranium "enriched" to about 3% u-235 (up from a natural level of 0.7%). Different isotopes of the same element are identical chemically. Separation requires techniques that exploit the subtle difference in weights between isotopes. The technologies of enrichment are extremely sophisticated and subject to stringent international control, since the processes that can enrich uranium to the levels needed by nuclear reactors can be repeated over and over to separate uranium-235 to the 90% levels useful in nuclear weapons. In other words, anyone making nuclear reactor grade uranium can easily make a nuclear weapon, which means the myth of "peaceful nuclear power" is a grotesque lie.
One reason, apart from its destructive potential, why so-called depleted uranium is used by the US and other military powers is that it is an abundant waste product. When natural uranium is enriched for nuclear power or weapons purposes, a large amount of uranium-238 with reduced (depleted) uranium-235 content is left over. This material is not useful for power or weapons purposes, and there are tons and tons of it left over. It is also possible that using these weapons systems is a form of intentional low-level genocide against the peoples of the Middle East, since the birth defects being created by uranium weapons interfere with the long term survival of these populations.
Decay chain of Uranium?238 into Lead?206
SEE CHART:
http://www.oilempire.us/depleted-uranium.html
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S. 3036 - Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act
U.S. SENATE WILL DEBATE CLIMATE CHANGE FOR THE NEXT
TWO WEEKS... I'LL BET DEPLETED URANIUM WILL NEVER
BE MENTIONED...!!!
DU ALERT...
HTTP://WWW.APFN.ORG/APFN/DU.HTM
HTTP://WWW.APFN.ORG/APFN/DU2.HTM
NETWORK ... NETWORK .... NETWORK!!!