Depleted Uranium -- Much ado about nothing?

HEAL’s fight against depleted uranium, (DU), at Envirocare is an exaggerated one in my opinion. I suggest we fight the fights we can win that are most important to Utah, our future, our health, and lets not worry about the things that are of less importance. If suitable storage is made for the DU at Envirocare’s site what is the issue?

DU or uranium 238 is an alpha emitter. Most everyone is not aware this same DU is used on board a number of Boeing 747’s as a counter balance or weight on ailerons since it is more than one and a half times heavier than lead. If you have flown on a 747 you have flown with DU. It is also used as a shielding material for the more aggressive beta particles in giving radiation treatments to cancer patients. Therefore since all of us have a friend or family member who has been treated with radiation or X-ray chances are the equipment used DU here in Utah. In the war of liberation of Kuwait DU shells knocked out Saddam’s Russian made tanks. Let’s face it, our military uses DU. It is an effective weapon against Russian armor. I guess my point is that it exists. Yes, I do not want it stored here in Utah any more than anyone else and Utah should not be the waste dump of the US, but we use it and it is around us.

Baylor College of Medicine provided this nice illustration of the relative energy of various radioactive particles and waves. Produced during alpha decay, an alpha particle is a fast moving helium nucleus. Alpha particles carry a charge of +2 and strongly interact with matter. They travel only a few inches through air and can easily be stopped with a sheet of paper. That’s right Utahans, a few inches of air or a single sheet of paper stops an alpha particle. If DU comes then lets make sure we tax the hell out of it and use those funds to provide, yes, more radiation treatment to those cancer victims without health care, support for education and to keep our infrastructure intact.

Lets work to keep higher levels of radiation from coming into our state. Fight what we can and remove the hysteria and ignorance around the storage of DU at Envirocare. The radiation hysteria of America in the 21st century is akin, in my mind, to the public discourse of witches in Salem, circa 1692.

A last question for HEAL I would like to know -- do members and supporters of HEAL have smoke detectors in their homes and apartments? Americium, a daughter product of the decay of deadly plutonium, has been the active agent in making smoke alarms work. It is an alpha emitter.