Fructose

8. Depleted Uranium
Depleted uranium (DU) is uranium primarily composed of the isotope uranium-238 (U-238).
Natural uranium is about 99.27 percent U-238, 0.72 percent U-235, and 0.0055 percent U-234.
U-235 is used for fission in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.
DU is useful because of its very high density of 19.1 g/cm. Civilian uses include counterweights in
aircraft, radiation shielding in medical radiation therapy and industrial radiography equipment,
and containers used to transport radioactive materials. Military uses include defensive armor
plating and armor-piercing projectiles.
The use of DU in munitions is controversial because of questions about potential long-term health
effects. Normal functioning of the kidney, brain, liver, heart, and numerous other systems can be
affected by uranium exposure, because in addition to being weakly radioactive, uranium is a toxic
metal. It is weakly radioactive and remains so because of its long physical half-life (4.468 billion
years for uranium-238), but has a considerably shorter biological half-life. The aerosol produced
during impact and combustion of depleted uranium munitions can potentially contaminate wide
areas around the impact sites or can be inhaled by civilians and military personnel. During a three
week period of conflict in 2003 in Iraq, 1,000 to 2,000 tons of DU munitions were used, mostly in
cities.
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