A more interesting question might be: where does one get depleted uranium. I looked, but found no useful information on the Net. Surely there can't be much restrictions on this stuff. [The even more interesting question of course is where to obtain enriched uranium}. --Lucky Green <shamrock@cypherpunks.to> "Anytime you decrypt... its against the law". Jack Valenti, President, Motion Picture Association of America in a sworn deposition, 2000-06-06

-----Original Message----- From: cypherpunks@openpgp.net [mailto:cypherpunks@openpgp.net]On Behalf Of Tim May Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2000 12:10 To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: request for info about DU

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.