Radiation hazard of depleted uranium

Medical Effects of Internal Contamination with Uranium, URANIO: cronaca e documenti, giovedì 20 maggio 2010 Medical,Journal v.40, n.1, Mar99, by Asaf Durakoviæ, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington D.C., USA “…. The association of depleted uranium with human mutagenesis, carcinogenesis, and diseases of the immune system has been postulated in the environmental measurements of radioactivity at the DU testing ranges in the United States. Whereas the surface contamination levels are strictly regulated for the decommissing of the facilities for unrestricted use, with a maximum permissible level of 35 pCi/g, the surface contamination levels found after the testing of DU penetrators routinely exceeded the maximum permissible dose of soil contamination……Radioactivity as a result of the decay progeny of 238U poses a radiation hazard of inhalation. One milligram of DU generates over a billion alpha and beta particles per year, which, together with gamma emitted radionuclides of 238U progeny (234Th, 234Pa), causes internal radiation hazards. The reality of the legacy of DU waste and its use in the recent tactical warfare warrants detailed studies regarding its effect on the biosphere and the human population.

URANIO: cronaca e documenti: Medical Effects of Internal Contamination with Uranium

The Radiation Murder of Alexander Litvinenko

10 Famous Incidences of Death by Radiation – Listverse March 25, 2010 by amasimp Alexander Litvinenko was a former KGB officer who escaped prosecution in Russia and received political asylum in the United Kingdom . In November of 2006 he suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized. He died three weeks later and post-mortem tests showed he had been given a lethal dose of Polonium-210 via a cup of tea.

Uranium workers’ deaths by radiation accident

10 Famous Incidences of Death by Radiation – Listverse March 25, 2010 by amasimp Japan’s worst nuclear radiation accident took place at a uranium reprocessing facility in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, on September 30, 1999.

Solve the existing nuclear waste problem, and no more nuclear reactors

Areva’s La Hague reprocessing plant has annually discharged 100,000,000 gallons of radioactive liquid wastes into the English Channel via an underwater pipeline

Chain reaction: The nuclear debate is among the most pressing of our times.Our Future Planet  2 March 2010  Giles Crosse “………Perhaps the most widely feared question is whether there’s a way to make nuclear safe?“Not really safe, no. Not building any more reactors would help, but we don’t have a safe method for long term storage of the waste we already have. We’ve created a hazard which will remain dangerous for over a million years. The best we can do is to stop making it worse.”

Nuclear power a failure on economics, energy and climate change

“The question really is whether we can afford to throw billions of pounds and years of effort chasing yet more nuclear pipe dreams”

“In the next decade meeting our existing renewables and efficiency targets would safely close the ‘energy gap’ and cut emissions, while leaving plenty of potential to expand renewables even further later.”

Chain reaction: The nuclear debate is among the most pressing of our times.Our Future Planet  2 March 2010  Giles Crosse lines up the arguments.

Nieger’s uranium wealth goes to AREVA and other foreign companies

Niger’s uranium coup, boilingspot: 7 March 2010 On February 18, Niger’s President Mamadou Tandja was overthrown in a military coup. A military junta calling itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, headed by Major Salou Djibo, took power Tony Iltis | Green Left Online | 6 March 2010 “……the junta is unlikely to confront the causes of Niger’s extreme poverty: Western-imposed neoliberal austerity and the environmentally and socially destructive plunder of natural resources, particularly uranium…….

Low level radiation and birth deformities

Uranium Weapons, Low-Level Radiation and Deformed Babies Global Research.ca by Paul Zimmerman  2 Jan 2010 A dramatic increase in the number of babies born with birth defects was recently reported by doctors working in Falluja, Iraq [1]. One of the proposed causes for this alarming situation is radiation exposure to the population produced by uranium weapons.

The medical and economic costs of nuclear power – On Line Opinion – 14/9/2009

The medical and economic costs of nuclear power
OnLine opinion By  Helen Caldicott – 14 September 2009

“…………………..The radioactive elements “routinely” emitted from nuclear power plant stacks into the air can be inhaled, or ingested when they concentrate in the food chain – in vegetables and fruit, -and then further concentrated in various internal organs in humans.