Special Report
DU-related Facilities
Contamination from Firing Ranges Concealed Truths
Discounted Casualties
Akira Tashiro
Facilities related to radioactive depleted uranium weapons are scattered over virtually the entire United States. The total number of facilities for R&D, manufacture, test firing, storage, and disposal of DU, including those that have been shut down due to radioactive contamination, is upwards of 50.
They are far smaller in size and number than the nuclear weapons facilities spread across the country, but like the testing ranges and disposal sites for the latter, they end up in sparsely populated areas, where they contaminate the environment and threaten the health of local residents.
The map shows the locations of DU munition facilities on a list compiled by the Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI) in 1995, I will report on contamination issues related to these facilities, particularly the firing ranges.
Persistent Fears among Residents
The main purpose of DU shells is to destroy tanks made of heavy metals. Test firing of DU shells from tanks requires a large firing range; aerial bombing practice from airplanes requires huge desert bases.
Changing Perceptions of the Government
The Nellis Air Force Base appears to surround the Nevada Nuclear Testing Site. It is the only DU munition firing site in current use by the Air Force. The base covers 1.25 million hectares (about 4,830 sq. miles). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) permits DU munitions to be used on the southeast, or the Las Vegas side, of the base. Here, 7,900 rounds of 30mm shells are tested each year. Unfortunately, the permissible area happens to lie entirely within a national desert wildlife preserve.
DU rounds have been test-fired here since the early 1970s, because radioactivity and heavy metal pollution were not considered serious problems until the mid-1980s. However, a US Congress decision required the air force to find 44,500 hectares (about 170 sq. miles) for a wildlife preserve in another part of the state to compensate for the land it contaminated in this area.
Grace Potorti (45), executive director of the NGO Rural Alliance for Military Accountability based in Reno, Nevada, explained the change in attitude of state residents and state government as follows.
"Nevada cooperated with atmospheric nuclear tests at the Nevada Nuclear Testing Site since the beginning of the 1950s. Until the mid-1980s, it welcomed every expansion of military presence. Then things changed. Though the military presence was doing wonders for the economy, the people and the state government began to realize that the damage to the ecosystem and the health of the residents from the use of DU and other munitions outweighed the benefits."
1.5 Million Unexploded Shells
Through the Internet, the Alliance exchanges information with grassroots groups located near military bases all around the country. According to Potorti, the great majority of DU firing ranges are located in sparsely populated areas and are embroiled in controversy regarding radioactive contamination.
One of these is the Army' Jefferson Proving Ground (JPG) in southeast Indiana. To demonstrate the power and accuracy of DU rounds, test firings were repeatedly carried out over 22,300 hectares (about 85 sq. miles) between the mid-80s to 1994. The legacy is about 70 tons of DU, shell fragments, and contaminated storage buildings.
Since 1941, JPG has been testfiring various other kinds of weaponry as well-about 1.5 million unexploded rounds were simply abandoned there.
Notes:
Ignorance is no excuse to not understand that the children in Waianae will not and cannot live in here in the future--they must leave! Life is for a very long time and to settle for a few years would be savagly ignorant.
Replies
I had a meeting last night with the neighborhood board committee, and I was invited to speak on the issue of DU. Of course it went into the air and somewhat understood. At this late juncture, I doubt if I can even convience the prevention of the Army receiving a license to posses and use DU in their live fire training. We just going to have to deal with the granted license and the aftermath of the cancer rate going up in Waianae. The minimum life spa is seven years or more. Short life span, but many Na Kanaka out here in Waianae are suicidal--it's the painful suffering, lack of medical care, and unable to work which is the next problems that we have to contend with.
I wonder how the campaign is going with this one, first Waianae was the capital of diebetes, now it's going to be cancer and highrate of birth defects.
So very sad.
The DU license will be given to the Army I believe it will happen in september. Do you have any more news?
Compiled by Vladimir S. Zajic, July 1999
vzajic.tripod.com
10. CONCLUSIONS
10.1 Depleted Uranium as Radioactive Waste
Depleted uranium produced as a by-product of uranium enrichment is classified as radioactive and toxic waste and it is subjected to numerous regulations for handling and disposal. From the existence of these regulations and their enforcement by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, etc., from the commenced or proposed remedial actions at both past and present DU manufacturing sites and proving grounds, and from the recent limitations on DU ammunition testing, it is evident that the US Government and military authorities are aware that the spread of depleted uranium is harmful both to humans and to the environment. They are also aware of the fact that radioactivity of depleted uranium is sufficient to warrant disposal of contaminated objects, including soil from DU manufacturing sites and proving grounds, to (low-level) radioactive waste dumps.
Yet the US regulatory limits for general public exposure are exceeded up to 5 orders of magnitude for airborne radioactive emissions and the up to 3 orders of magnitude for residual radioactive contamination (see paragraph 7.5) when DU ammunition is used on the battlefield.
10.2 Before and After the Gulf War
Prior to the Gulf War, the Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) report [13] warned that following combat, the condition of the battlefield, and the long-term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of DU for military applications. The report also noted that assuming the US regulatory standards and health physics practices are followed, it is likely some form of remedial action will be required in a DU post-combat environment.
Yet after the Operation Desert Storm, when approximately 700,000 lb. of depleted uranium was scattered over a large area, the Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI) report [33] claimed that no international law, treaty, regulation, or custom requires the United States to remediate Persian Gulf War battlefields. Since the cost of such cleanup can be estimated to tens of billions of dollars and since any cleanup would imply an official acknowledgment of the dangers of DU, it is unlikely that the cleanup will be attempted. The AEPI report also noted that if DU was indicted as a causative agent for the Gulf War Illness, the financial implications of long-term disability payments and health-care costs would be excessive.
10.3 Non-publicity and Proliferation
Various high-tech weapons such as stealth fighters, precision bombs, and Patriot missiles received much public attention during the Gulf War. The use of DU ammunition, perhaps the most effective new weapon, was not publicly revealed until a year later [24], [55], [77], [88]. A Los Alamos National Laboratory memorandum [19] noted the effectiveness of DU penetrators against Iraqi armored targets. The memo also suggested that public concern about the environmental effects of depleted uranium could make DU rounds politically unacceptable and result in a ban on DU penetrators.
The rapid proliferation of DU weapons after the Gulf War, prompted in large part by the Department of Defense, can be looked upon as a successful effort to prevent any such outcome. Yet exactly this proliferation ensures that any present-day military advantage due to DU weapons will not last for long [72], while the health and environmental consequences of the present-day battles will last for centuries. The proliferation is not necessarily limited to the nuclear powers who possess depleted uranium, because similar weapons could be made using natural uranium as well.
10.4 United Nations Resolution
In 1996, the UN Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities passed a resolution [44] in which they "urged all States to be guided in their national policies by the need to curb production and spread of weapons of mass destruction or with indiscriminate effect, in particular nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, fuel-air bombs, napalm, cluster bombs, biological weaponry, and weaponry containing depleted uranium" (emphasis added).
However, the United States used the DU weapons again during the recent "Operation Balkan Storm" in 1999. In an obvious attempt to turn away the public attention, DoD spokesman portrayed these weapons as being around for a long time and therefore not newsworthy [91].
10.5 Recommendations
The House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight paid considerable attention, in their report on the "Gulf War Syndrome" [59], to possible exposures to chemical warfare agents. On the other hand, exposure of the Gulf War veterans to depleted uranium dust was mentioned almost in passing (see paragraph 9.4). This attitude is understandable. While Iraq can be blamed for manufacturing and stockpiling chemical weapons, if not for using them, the United States are responsibile for the use of depleted uranium ammunition from A to Z (with 0.14% British involvement). It requires far more soul-searching to admit the indiscriminate adverse health effects of these weapons.
Yet the matter of depleted uranium is more urgent than the possible exposures to chemical weapons, for two reasons. While no treatment is available for delayed neurotoxicity [59], most cancers can be cured when detected early. Cancer is the expected long-term consequence of both the radiological and toxic effects of depleted uranium exposure. The second reason is the post-battlefield contamination. While most organic compounds produced for use as chemical warfare agents, including mustard gas and nerve gas, decay within days or weeks after their release, depleted uranium does not decay that fast. On the contrary, its radioactivity is slowly increasing due to the secular equilibrium build-up of the the uranium decay series. Unless some cleanup is organized soon, the contamination will plague natives of the war affected areas for centuries to come.
The health issues associated with the use of DU munitions, particularly exposure to DU aerosol by inhallation, should be publicly admitted by the US Government authorities and evaluated by medical and scientific experts with at least the same (or more) vigor as the health issues associated with possible exposures to chemical warfare agents.
The Veterans Administration should conducts a statistical cancer study in Gulf War veterans. If any excess lymphomas, leukemias, or other organ specific cancers are found, all Gulf War veterans potentially exposed to depleted uranium should be long-term or permanently monitored.
Economic sanctions on Iraq and Yugoslavia should be immediately lifted in order to enable these countries to effectively deal with the war inflicted health and environmental catastrophes.
Qualified organizations in Iraq and Yugoslavia trying to address or remedy the DU contamination, including government organizations in these countries, should be offered cooperation and material help.
Testing of the DU weapons in the United States should be completely banned as a sound environmental policy and as the first step in curbing unlimited use of these radioactive and toxic weapons.