ENVIRONMENTAL AND SANITARY RISKS CAUSED BY DEPLETED URANIUM WEAPONS.

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GIORDANOEV

APRIL 2004

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SANITARY RISKS CAUSED BY DEPLETED URANIUM WEAPONS.

GIORDANO ERIC

APRIL 2004

SUMMARY

Introduction. Page 5

I) History of depleted uranium ammunition. Page 6

a) The birth of nuclear arsenal. Page 6 b) Origin of depleted uranium. Page 6 c) A solution to dispose of the stocks of DU. Page 7 d) The apparition of DU on the front. Page 7

II) Effects of depleted uranium. Page 8

a) Properties of depleted uranium. Page 8 b) Environmental risks. Page 9 c) Sanitary risks. Page 10 d) Juridical statute of DU weapons. Page 12

Conclusion. Page 13

Appendixes. Page 14

Bibliography. Page 19

The radioactivity is a chemical phenomenon that exists at the natural state. From year 1896, noble physicians underlined the presence of invisible radiation given out from various substances known as radioactive, such as uranium. Discoveries were going quickly, and in 1939, the first artificial nuclear fission and chain reaction of the history demonstrated that this phenomenon was releasing an important quantity of energy. In hardly 40 years, the experimental bases of nuclear energy were laid down. From their beginning, they were used for military purposes, mainly during the arms-run of the World War Two and the Cold War. Then starting year 1951, they were used by the civil energetic industry. During the early 90’s, after the express liberation of Kuwait by the Coalition, the World heard of a new kind of ammunitions, solution of a “clean and surgical war”: the depleted uranium ammunitions, chosen for their so efficient properties.

However, with the appearance of “secondary effects” on environment and on human health, depleted uranium became a phenomenon favouring debates. Is