CDR: request for info about DU
I am a journalist student who need some basic info about Depleted Uranium. Why and how has it depleted???? Do u have any usefull links were I can find this info?? yours sincerely Linn-Cecilie Hansen
On Tue, Oct 10, 2000 at 06:27:33PM +0100, Hansen Linn wrote:
I am a journalist student who need some basic info about Depleted Uranium. Why and how has it depleted???? Do u have any usefull links were I can find this info??
yours sincerely Linn-Cecilie Hansen
"man du" at any Unix prompt will give full usage information. Note that Unix is case sensitive. -- Greg
At 6:27 PM +0100 10/10/00, Hansen Linn wrote:
I am a journalist student who need some basic info about Depleted Uranium. Why and how has it depleted???? Do u have any usefull links were I can find this info??
There will be vast numbers of Web pages available. Use search engines. I worked a lot with depleted uranium in a past career. It's natural uranium from which the U-235 isotope has been removed, leaving the U-238 isotope. Inasmuch as U-238 is the bulk of naturally occurring uranium, DU is not very different from ordinary uranium as mined and processed into the metallic form. Though mildly radioactive (half-life of billions of years...4.5 billion, IIRC), its very high density makes it ideal for sailboat keels, cores of anti-tank and anti-ship shells, etc. (When used in a weapon, the DU adds to the penetration, and also ignites and burns...this has nothing whatsoever to do with its radioactivity, though.) Again, consult online sources, or encyclopedias. And if you asked on the Cypherpunks list because you thought it would be cute to implicate us in nuclear weapons chatter, get a clue. If not, it was still the wrong place to ask such a question. --Tim May -- ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
At 03:09 PM 10/10/00 -0400, Tim May wrote:
And if you asked on the Cypherpunks list because you thought it would be cute to implicate us in nuclear weapons chatter, get a clue. If not, it was still the wrong place to ask such a question.
--Tim May
Lets see, radiation effects on matter... hmm, I bet TM knows something about that... U acts like Ca++, so watch your bones... anticipating that regular NM poster, stay upwind...blah blah.. Nukes are not cost or effort- effective, compared to CBWs...
At 8:55 PM -0400 10/10/00, David Honig wrote:
At 03:09 PM 10/10/00 -0400, Tim May wrote:
And if you asked on the Cypherpunks list because you thought it would be cute to implicate us in nuclear weapons chatter, get a clue. If not, it was still the wrong place to ask such a question.
--Tim May
Lets see, radiation effects on matter... hmm, I bet TM knows something about that... U acts like Ca++, so watch your bones... anticipating that regular NM poster, stay upwind...blah blah..
Nukes are not cost or effort- effective, compared to CBWs...
"Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love uranium." I forgot to mention in my last message that another prime use of DU is for radiation shielding. No, not an example of Simpson's Paradox (not O.J.). Rather, DU absorbs very well, and only gives off very slight amounts of radiation. Uranium, either the ore, or the metal, or the depleted form, is remarkably harmless. I used to handle blocks of the stuff. One of my associates had some dice made out of DU...I always wanted a pair of these, but I never got my own set. Ah, the years of slaving away in the thorium mines... (A line out of a Heinlein juvenile, I vaguely recalled at the time. Something significant about learning about thorum, slide rules, and tensors from reading Heinlein novels in the 6th grade.) --Tim May -- ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
participants (4)
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David Honig -
Greg Newby -
Hansen Linn -
Tim May