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The military benefits of an unstoppable bullet and impenetrable armor are obvious, but are there no alternatives that might provide similar protection without the health costs? Surprisingly, the question points to economic rather than scientific considerations. Depleted uranium is a byproduct of uranium fuel enrichment – essentially nuclear waste. Under normal circumstances, nuclear power plants would have to pay to store this waste. After discovering that the military could use DU, power companies were more than happy to hand over a virtually unlimited supply of material to weapons manufacturers free of charge. DU moved from buried barrels to bunker busters.
Many cite tungsten as a potential replacement for DU since its comparable density means that little would be lost in terms of strength. Its higher melting point would reduce the likelihood of causing infernos on impact. Most important, tungsten lacks radioactivity. But tungsten has the unfortunate distinction of being considerably more expensive than free. China controls seventy-five percent of the world’s tungsten production, followed by other nations including Russia and Vietnam. When weapons manufacturers can receive a free and unlimited supply of American-made nuclear waste and redeposit it in combat areas, importing material is not an option. “War is money,” reminds Dr. Rokke, and DU looks just as good on the balance sheet as it does in the target range.
This minor problem has not prevented the airline industry from investing in tungsten. Thirty years ago, flying on a Boeing 747 probably meant sitting on top of depleted uranium. The tremendous density of DU, again combined with its cheap availability, made the compound extremely popular for use in aircraft counterweights. In the late 1980s, scientists observed violent fi res and high levels of radiation at airplane crash sites. Fearing lawsuits, many airlines decided to replace their DU counterweights with tungsten. The transformation is ongoing, and some activists suspect that the planes which crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11 may have contained DU counterweights. Some Ground Zero rescue workers suffer from respiratory problems that seem remarkably similar to the symptoms of DU exposure among veterans. No evidence of DU contamination has been found, and the airlines deny the possibility. Dr. Paul Lioy, director of the Exposure Science Division at The Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute leads one of the largest studies analyzing the so-called “World Trade Center dust.” Lioy told P.H. that uranium levels at the site were “very low” and that “no detectable values” of radiation were found. The data simply does not support the allegations of a link between DU and 9/11. But the fact that opponents of DU have evoked the specter of 9/11 is a sign of how far activists feel they must go to draw attention to their cause.
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