The depleted uranium weapons conspiracy

Over the last thirty years, alongside the development of nuclear energy and weapons there has been a co-development of ballistic weapons that make use of waste material from the nuclear industry. These weapons utilise a warhead that is manufactured from depleted uranium, or uranium that has been used in a nuclear powerstation and has lost the majority of its radioactive potency. The benefit of this technology is that uranium is incredibly dense, and when fired through air, naturally heats up to several thousand degrees centigrade. This creates a tremendous ability to punch through armour and makes depleted uranium rounds extremely effective against armoured vehicles, particularly tanks. This technology has been successfully deployed in both Iraq wars, and in the Eastern European conflicts, the Balkan conflicts, Afghanistan, and by Israel against Palestine. It has become relatively mainstream as a weapons system. The conspiracy however comes in two parts, and stems from the belief that just because something is used and shown to be effective does not mean that it is safe, or ethical to use it.

The first conspiracy with depleted uranium is the assertion that it carries no radioactive threat either to those using the rounds, or to those who the rounds are used on. This assertion has been made by the US and Russian military research establishments, and been backed up by UN and Atomic Energy Association researchers who have studied the after effects of battles involving these munitions. The problem comes in the way in which this research is carried out, and in the lack of public availability of the research data, or its independent verification by other scientists. Evidence is now coming out through court cases brought by Gulf War veterans suggesting that they are suffering from unusual medical conditions with remarkable similarities to radiation poisoning, and also producing children with an increased prevalence of birth defects. These cases are beginning to draw out information suggesting that support for depleted uranium is based on flawed testing and measurement of radiation focusing on gamma radiation rather than equally dangerous alpha and beta radiation.

The second comes again from court cases brought by Palestinian citizens in the wake of shelling with depleted uranium rounds by Israel, and strongly suggests that what are being used as depleted uranium casings are in reality a mix of depleted and live uranium. The evidence is in the form of isotopic analysis of rubble at impact sites where there are high levels of radioactive fallout. This raises the question of how depleted uranium rounds are produced and begs the question of whether this is an accidental oversight on the part of manufacturers or a deliberate ploy to either increase damage, or to mask the use of tactical nuclear battlefield weapons. The point is that both of these conspiracies have far wider implications than the immediate area of use. In the wake of the first Gulf War there were unusually high readings of radioactive material recorded at the atomic weapons research station at Aldermarston in the UK, the material being traced to depleted uranium rounds used in the conflict several thousand miles away. Studies of women in Saudi Arabia analysing their hair demonstrates dangerously high levels of beta radiation arising from the 2004 war in Iraq, and perhaps most ironically, research in Israel has shown that if male fertility rates continue to fall at the current rate, the Israeli population will collapse within twenty years.

Whatever the problems associated with these weapons, and their use and misuse, what is perhaps more concerning is that once again we have a situation whereby material is being used either without being properly tested and understood which is bad enough but possibly deliberately in spite of, or because of the secondary damaging effects on populations. Either way, our leaders have an awful lot of questions to answer, and adds to the evidence that our leaders are not acting in the best interests of people or the planet, leading inevitably to the question why?