Word: uranium
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...Uranium-236 (U-236) is a waste product of nuclear reactors and one of the most deadly radioactive substances on earth. It causes cancer and birth defects as well as lung, bone and kidney problems. Considering the serious dangers of this material, which does not occur in nature, the most sensible policy would be to keep it as far away from humans as possible. But, of course, the American military has proven once again that the sensible policy is not always the chosen...
...Department of Defense currently uses depleted uranium (DU) in many of its bullets and shells. It is 1.7 times as dense as lead and makes a “perfect” tip for tank-penetrating missiles. Although the military claims that the DU it uses contains only the relatively harmless isotope Uranium-238 (U-238), it in fact also contains the deadly U-236. By continuing the use of DU, the U.S. military is knowingly putting thousands of soldiers and millions of civilians at risk...
When DU-tipped weapons hit their targets, they penetrate and explode, leaving the battlefield with a thin coating of uranium dust. When soldiers and civilians search recently destroyed enemy tanks for intelligence or souvenirs, they disturb this thin coating and inhale the radioactive dust. Over 300 tons of DU were strewn over the desert battlefields during the Gulf...
...Siegwart-Horst Günther, a German epidemiologist found Iraqi children playing with bullets and shells left over from the war. In tests, he found radiation levels 350 times higher than those produced by Uranium-238. Subsequently, one of those children died of leukemia and others suffered kidney failure and lacerations on their skin. Günther was arrested by the German government and jailed for two months for bringing such dangerous material into Germany...
...Pyongyang's revelation that it hasn't stuck by the accord suggests it has been pursuing a two-track strategy to get the bomb. Instead of plutonium, the fissile material for atomic weapons can also be enriched uranium. (That's how the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was made.) In a report to Capitol Hill staffers in the U.S. last week, the CIA said Pyongyang in 2001 started seeking materials to build a production plant to turn out enriched uranium in large quantities. If the facility comes online in two or three years, as the spy agency suggests it could, North...