Community | November 16, 2009 | 35 comments

Depleted uranium

source: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_13779722

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Vierotchka
DU: Depleted uranium, a unique waste that will become more and more radioactive until, roughly, the year 1002009. The acronym also gives sound guidance for where depleted uranium should be buried: deep underground.

But a lack of deep, underground storage space and a growing need to find permanent storage for 1.4 million tons of DU is "clearly driving" federal regulators to erroneously steer the materials to shallow burial sites like EnergySolutions' low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Utah.

That's the contention of Kansas State University Geologist Charles G. Oviatt and a pair of Brigham Young University scientists, geologist Steve Nelson and climatologist Summer Rupper. In a letter to the NRC, which is gathering input in the early stages of a three-year review of DU disposal issues, they cite a "programmatic failure" by the agency to properly plan for deep disposal of depleted uranium.

The trio are experts on Utah's Great Salt Lake, which, every couple of millenniums, rises high enough to submerge EnergySolutions' landfill in Tooele County. When that occurs, the DU could wash away and eventually be deposited throughout the Great Salt Lake Basin, causing a "massive environmental catastrophe," according to Johnson, a past chairman of the Utah Radiation Control Board.

(more at link)

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Yet tens of thousands of tons of depleted uranium has been rained on Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, with the Pentagon declaring that it is perfectly safe - and you can be sure that tens of thousands more tons will be used in a like manner. Way to get rid of horrendously poisonous waste, dumping it on millions of innocent children, women and men (and as many future generations as there will be in those countries before DU has killed off the whole population, fauna and flora) on the other side of the world - DU has a half-life of 4.5 BILLION years.
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green,   Human Rights,   BioEthics
  2. tags:
    Depleted Uranium,  DU,  Permanent Pollution
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35 comments // Depleted uranium

  • SeaJade
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image

    • Come to think of it "Shock and Awe" characterize pretty much what the american natives, blacks, Mexicans & the miscellaneous rabble must have felt throughout US's history...

      MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY
      http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com/

      "To maintain this position of disparity (U.S. economic-military supremacy)... we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming.... We should cease to talk about vague and... unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standard and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts.... The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better." - George Kennan [Director of Policy Planning U.S. State Department 1948]

      "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." - Voltaire

    • 2 years ago
  • jubal
    • 0
      jubal  

    • DU is the most insidious compound being added to weaponry that we have. It not only threatens the very fabric of the lives of our soldiers, but all those that America wars against. So many innocent people being poisoned for the sake of "Shock and Awe".

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image

    • You know what else you can do with depleted uranium?
      A giant dildo up uncle Sam's fundamentalist/obscurantist war mongering ass !

      Note : This is the subject that REALLY puts me out there & makes me loose all pretense about our civilization, our race & humanity's future at large. If this can go on unreported & unpunished WTF can we aspire to at all !

      "We have become a monster in the eyes of the whole world – a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us… No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we’ll kill you." – Hunter S. Thompson

      "We are watching a poorly staged rendition of Wag the Dog , interpreted for the morbidly stupid and performed by the criminally insane." - Jules Carlysle

    • 2 years ago
  • darknesspanther
    • 0
      darknesspanther  

    • You know what else you can do with depleted uranium? Make tanks out of it. It's worked pretty well so far. Also, depleted uranium produces less radiation than natural uranium. Finally, I'd like to point out that the article specifically says, "every couple of millenniums". We'd better get right on that then

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image

    • CRIMINALIZE WAR
      War is about killing, massive killing !
      "It does not matter if the war is not real, or when it is, victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. A hierarchal society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. The war is waged by the ruling group against its subjects, and its object is not victory, but to keep the very structure of society in tact." - George Orwell, from 1984
      http://www.criminalisewar.org/

    • 2 years ago
  • royulery
    • 0
      royulery  

    • du is u238. it's called depleted because the rare isotope of u235 has been removed for bombs and reactors. uranium is naturally in the environment, mostly found in granite locked in zircon crystals. granite gives off mild radiation, more than sunlight. u238 is the most common isotope of uranium because it has the longest "half life "( how long it takes for half to burn up and turn to lead ).
      just because we don't have any way to use it's power now doesn't mean we won't. put this poison away with all nuclear waste in a secure location like a salt mine. there's too much to fire into space. uranium is part of the earth, it powers the movement of continents and the building of mountains. it's radiation kills life but it also causes mutations that drive the engine of evolution. it is like the scorpion, it has it's place but not anywhere near me.

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  

    • REALITY REARS ITS UGLY HEAD !
      Depleted Uranium (My Public Service Announcement )

      Now let's talk about USA's moral stand in the world shall we ?

    • 2 years ago
  • FishaHouse777
    • 0
      FishaHouse777  

    • Wow humans seem to be so great at making inventions and furthering things for humanity, but what about the long term effects of this? We rarely look into the long-term future to see if what we are doing is truly good for us. This will definitely come back to bite us all in the ass, and if this article is 100% correct it will bite us in the ass very soon.

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
  • WhiteNoise
  • WhiteNoise
  • samthesixth
  • pukemnukem
    • 0
      pukemnukem  

    • Wow...get a more current photo...the navy hasn't used dungaree pants with the utilities since the early nineties. Then again, since the Navy, along with the rest military no longer utilizes DU, I guess its the best available.

    • 2 years ago
  • baby_im_bad_NEWS
    • 0
      baby_im_bad_NEWS  

    • I grew up in Utah and remember when all this was going down, I was pretty young but even then though to myself, Why don't they give a crap about Utah? Real people live here too...

    • 2 years ago
  • samthesixth
  • Vierotchka
  • samthesixth
  • WhiteNoise
  • samthesixth
    • 0
      samthesixth  
    • samthesixth:

      Thank you for your answers. Was the depleted uranium ours or formerly ours as in from the stockpiles we gave them?

      I am not trying to incite anyone. I am curious to further my own understanding of differing perspectives on these events.

    • 2 years ago
  • CalgarC
  • 02
    • 0
      02  

    • You know, our water is already polluted with waste and drugs and drug fragments. All the stuff people take, goes trough the sewers and into the water table.
      Where it will be joined by these various, poisonous wastes.
      Perhaps there is a bright side - all this stuff was manufactured from nature - and perhaps it will more clearly integrate itself once again - in time.

      Getting people to do a huge political turn-around and do a carefully arranged world clean-up, - the same people who thought to make money by taking part in the manufacturing of it in the first place...

      One might think that it is wonderful that we happen to have been born before humanity's dime is due.

      Unfortunately, we only live once and maybe it's best to get out in the sun and enjoy yourself, - before the rain comes.

    • 2 years ago
  • Vierotchka
  • tommytripper
    • 0
      tommytripper  

    • i do not think utah needs any more help with its village of the damned look alike contest...

      how about we find a better solution to this... i dont know like unmanned sun missions loaded with this crap let it burn up in space.

    • 2 years ago
  • 02
  • urbanwolf
    • 0
      urbanwolf  
    • tommytripper:

      This. Is exactly what needs to be done. There isn't another solution that I can foresee being anymore effective.

      And why not? Nothing would happen, some would probably argue that it's an "expensive" solution. More of a reason to not use Uranium anymore.

      Success!

    • 2 years ago
  • unclematt
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • tome erau - we have already dumped far too many toxic wastes of all kinds in the oceans as it is. Adding hundreds of thousands of tons of depleted uranium (which is far more toxic than natural uranium) will only make things far, far worse. As it is, we are already fast destroying the fauna of the oceans through our pollution and through over-fishing. Sea-food is now toxic as it contains high levels of mercury and dioxin - adding depleted uranium to this already ghastly soup will make all sea-food inedible, but that won't stop people from fishing and eating it, which spells genetic disaster followed by extinction of most of the humans in the world.

      No, dumping it in the ocean is a very bad idea.

    • 2 years ago
  • tome_erau
    • 0
      tome_erau  
    • Vierotchka:

      I should clarify. Not dumping it in the ocean, placing it at the bottom of the ocean in steel canistors or something. That way in 50 years when the uranium begins to leak out it will be to diluted to effect us and anything else thats not in the imidiate vicinity. I realize its not completely ideal but id rather spare a handful of bottom feeders then the Great Salt Lake Basin or any third world country.

    • 2 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  
    • Vierotchka:

      tome erau - depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, and it increases in radioactivity for well over a million years, so even in steel canisters at the bottom of the ocean, it will pollute the water as it leaks out.

    • 2 years ago
  • Nephwrack
  • tome_erau
    • 0
      tome_erau  

    • I think we should put it all at the bottom of the ocean. I know that sounds really bad but the ocean is actually full of uranium thats were we get most of it. If we put all our uranium in the ocean it wouldn't even be a measurable increase. Plus, its the deep hole we need already there for us. I agree that it needs to be as far away from people as possible and I think this is a reasonable solution. But I'm sure someone will tell me why I'm a moron and i hate the world.

    • 2 years ago
  • FishaHouse777
    • 0
      FishaHouse777  
    • tome_erau:

      This is highly radioactive and concentrated plutonium, quite different from the "precursors" to making plutonium at the bottom of the ocean. I wish I could agree with you but this would poison the aquamarine habitat and eventually us.

    • 2 years ago
  • tome_erau
    • 0
      tome_erau  
    • tome_erau:

      Im not really sure what you talking about with plutonium. First of all, plutonium is larger then uranium so the only way you could turn uranium into plutonium is in a supernova. Second, depleted uranium which is the by product of our reactors is a naturally occuring atom, much more common then the uranium thats used in the reactor. It decays very slowly with a half-life of about 4.5 billion year. Of course, a concentrated amount would negatively effect a small area which is why I suggested the bottom of the ocean where life in minimal. I realize its not perfect but nothing will be perfect, and I think this is a good option.

    • 2 years ago
  • regjoeschmo
    • 0
      regjoeschmo  

    • Its even cheaper to use it as ammunition and effectively "dump" it in foreign nations... the problems this caused for Iraq after even the gulf war was amazing.... still hardly anyone reports on it because its "bad for buisness"

    • 2 years ago
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