NGO Committee on Disarmament
6 April 1999

Dear Abolitionists,

Now that NATO's use of radioactive, toxic depleted uranium weaponry in Kosovo has been confirmed, I would like to offer a plea to anti-nuclear and peace groups to demand that NATO forces stop using these weapons immediately. Not to be negative, but I think the peace movement's failure to make a big international noise about these poisonous, indiscriminate weapons is part of the reason why they are being used again. We shouldn't let them get away with it once more.

Peacefully,
Roger Smith, NGO Committee on Disarmament

DEPLETED URANIUM WEAPONRY: BACKGROUND

by Roger Smith and Brice Friedman

NATO forces have commenced or will shortly commence their use of depleted uranium weapons in their air campaign over Kosovo. Depleted uranium is used in a number of armor-piercing anti-tank munitions, such as those aboard American A-10 Warthog jets and Apache helicopters, and M-1 Abrams and Bradley tanks. Yugoslav state news media have referred to "radioactive bombs" being launched by NATO (report broadcast on MSNBC, April 1). There is a strong likelihood that the weapons referred to are composed of depleted uranium (DU).

Uranium-238 is a naturally occurring isotope with radioactive properties. It is extracted from the earth and, through an enrichment process, the more fissionable uranium-235 is extracted from the U-238, making it more suitable for atomic energy facilities and nuclear weapons. This procedure leaves behind a by-product of U-238 called "depleted uranium" that is about 65% as radioactive as naturally occurring U-238, with a half life of four and a half billion years. In addition to its radioactivity, depleted uranium is highly chemically toxic.

In the middle 1970s, as the stockpile of these potentially hazardous materials grew, so did the need for more powerful armor-penetrating weapons. As depleted uranium is twice as dense as steel as well as being pyrophoric in nature - meaning that it ignites on penetration - DU was favored over its competitor, tungsten. The seemingly unlimited supply of this material provides for a relatively inexpensive yet highly effective armor-piercing projectile - a highly unconventional sort of "conventional" weapon.

U.S. and Allied forces fired approximately 315 tons of depleted uranium during the Persian Gulf War. The effectiveness of the depleted uranium penetrators led the United States and Allied forces to introduce them into their military arsenal. However, at no time during the Gulf War did the U.S. or Allied forces brief ground troops of the safety hazards of this radioactive material or of safety measures for its handling. Allied personnel most likely to have come in contact with this material are ground forces who encountered equipment struck by DU penetrators, crews of military equipment who fired DU, Allied forces involved in friendly fire incidents, and curious soldiers who entered into or around DU strike points. Information released by the U.S. Department of Defense demonstrates that most of the troops deployed in the Gulf came into contact with DU munitions or passed through contaminated areas.*

When a DU penetrator makes contact with a solid object and burns, the radioactive U-238 aerosolizes and is emitted into the environment in tiny particles called particulates. According to scientific research, these particulates in U-238 can be transported by wind or water and have been known to travel over 26 miles from their initial source of emission. The toxic material can enter the human body through inhalation, ingestion, exploded fragments or other wound contamination.

Many questions have been raised by veterans and other public interest groups about the contribution of depleted uranium contamination to the "Gulf War Syndrome" that has affected over 100,000 U.S. and Allied service people who saw action in the Gulf War. The World Health Organization has launched a two-year study of the possible link between DU exposure and the dramatically increased cancer rates in southern Iraq since 1991. The U.N. Human Rights Commission has requested the U.N. Secretary-General to produce a report on DU along with other "weapons of mass destruction or with indiscriminate effect" incompatible with international humanitarian or human rights law. The battlefields where DU weaponry has been used remain contaminated, risking long-term and widespread environmental damage as well as the health of civilians and future generations. It appears that the battlefields and the people of the Balkans will not be spared this fate.

Roger Smith is Network Coordinator and Brice Friedman is a Legal Intern at the NGO Committee on Disarmament, a coalition that facilitates citizen access to the disarmament activities of the United Nations.

*See the Depleted Uranium Case Narrative written by Dan Fahey, available on the website of the Military Toxics Project at www.miltoxproj.org.