From:  http://home.hetnet.nl/~mlddegraaf/asia.htm


"Afghanistan

The northern part of Afghanistan in and around the Karakoram and Hindukush mountainranges is mineralogically interesting. Two paragenese can be found there, Alpine clefts and pegmatites. We are of course interested in the pegmatites. Most famous for it's Topaz and Aquamarine it also bears uranium. At least in one pegmatite in the Kunar valley Ishikawaite was found."

This might provide a hint to those looking for an explanation that doesn't involve the US and UK lying about using DU weapons (the test results didn't show DU - they showed mixed isotopes).

I do like to believe the worst of our dear leaders, but in this case it looks like it may just be natural exposure.

Bri.

So I read..
 http://www.llrc.org/du/duframes.htm

 http://www.iaea.or.at/GC/gc43/documents/gc43inf20.html#gc43inf20table1

 http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Rokke-Depleted-Uranium-DU21apr03.htm

The DU is contaminated with other isotopes and the urine test is a waste of time.
Particles lodged in lungs radiate the body.
A lymph biopsy is what is needed.

and..
 http://www.umrc.net/

(May 2003) Comparisons were with unexposed population

"New bioassay studies identify uranium internal contamination in Spin Gar (Tora Bora) area and the City of Kabul are up to 200 X’s the Reference Level of the unexposed population."

The UK troops moving from Basra to Baghdad are high risk... they stirred up lots of old dust from the '90 USUK attack on Death Road.. then there was a sand storm.

Cover-up in US relate to feared loss of benefits by veterans.
 http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=69054

The Gulf War Syndrome, which has put more then half of the 450,000 troops on disability, is finally being attributed to depleted uranium. However, there has been a large cover-up due to the fact that these soldiers will not talk about their illnesses, fearing the loss of medical benefits for themselves and their families.

Next Thursday (29th May) is the Second International Day of Action Against Depleted Uranium (DU). DU is a radioactive by-product of the nuclear industry that is used in armour piercing shells and “bunker buster” bombs. When a DU weapon hits its target it burns on impact and creates an extremely fine dust that can be spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body. In the last Gulf War the Pentagon admitted dropping 320 tonnes of the stuff resulting in increased cancers and birth defects among the Iraqi people. Over 90,000 US troops who served in the Gulf have also reported medical problems. Symptoms include lung, liver and kidney dysfunction, memory loss, headaches, fever, low blood pressure, and birth defects among newborn children. In the second Gulf War an unnamed US Colonel has admitted that 500 tonnes of depleted uranium was dropped on Iraq (other estimate up to 2000 tonnes) and that they did nothing to limit DU use in cities.

With these health effects it is hardly surprising that the United Nations has passed two resolutions, which include depleted uranium weapons among “weapons of mass or indiscriminate destruction”. Not only that but the US military don’t care that they are leaving a toxic legacy in Iraq and don’t care about the health of their own troops. In an interview with al Jazeera television Professor Rocke, a former chief of Depleted Uranium Project at the Pentagon said he was told to lie about the effects of DU, “Even though we know there are health and environmental effects, you should make sure that we can always use uranium munitions in combat because they are so effective. And therefore lie about the health and environmental effects of the use of uranium munitions in combat.”

Campaign Against Depleted Uranium 0161-273-8293/8283 www.cadu.org.uk

To read the interview with the US Colonel involved in the Gulf War www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0305/S00050.htm

* Not content with using DU in bunker busting bombs, the US military will start to research “low yield” nuclear weapons, part of next years staggering $400 billion dollars to be spent by the US military.

* With US weapons inspectors soon to leave Iraq because they can’t find anything, maybe they could turn their attention a little closer to home where they will be sure of finding weapons of mass destruction and evidence of international weapons treaties being broken. The US Army has proudly developed a grenade that can be used to fire biological and chemical agents. This is in clear breach of the Biological Weapons Convention, which explicitly prohibits development of bioweapons delivery devices “in any circumstances”. Jan van Aken, a biologist from the Sunshine Project commented, “Hans Blix might have an easier time finding illegal weapons if he were inspecting near Baltimore instead of Baghdad.” www.sunshine-project.org

* George Bush is on Trial in the Pavilion Gardens, Brighton this Bank Holiday Monday 1pm. Sadly not the real thing, but street theatre performance by Sussex Action for Peace. 07815 998127 www.safp.org.uk

* In the UK people will take action against Britain’s own weapons of mass destruction: No to Star Wars UK tour visits missile defence and nuclear hotspots, 4-13 June. 020 7702393 www.cnduk.org ** Faslane Peace Camp 21st Birthday week of action. 9-15 June. 01436820901 www.faslanepeacecamp.org.uk ** Trident Ploughshares International Disarmament Camp at Britain’s nuclear weapon factory, Aldermarston, nr. Reading, 6-9 June. 07904 450307 www.tridentploughshares.org/aldermaston/index.php

Sorry, Verity - I hadn't looked at the UMRC site.

This quote:

"Low but as yet inconclusive readings of U236 have been identified by the laboratory in some urine samples; further analysis is underway to determine the metallurgical origins of the uranium with a consideration of “commercial natural uranium” containing recycled reactor spent fuel products."

just about convinces me that DU was used, but what is more concerning is that U236 is found in the samples.

This means that the bastards are dropping spent fuel on people - U236 does not occur in nature, so the natural deposits in the area cannot be responsible.

It also means that the sneaky shits are avoiding their responsibility to reprocess their spent fuel by selling it to the military.

It's time this information was carried in the mainstream media - I had to look it up, and was 4 pages into Google before I found a reference in English.

I was totally wrong - thanks for your post.

Bri.

U236 is what occurs when a neutron collides with a U235 atom in a standard nuclear fission reaction. This nucleus is very unstable and splits within microseconds, realesing tremendous amounts of energy in a chain reaction. As far is I know, depleted uranium is the waste U238 that is not used in a standard nuclear reactor, as only U235 can under fission.

If you have no idea what I'm on about, look up uranium and/or nuclear fission, either on the web or in a stardard encyclopedia.