Depleted Uranium

Presented By
Soha Makhyoun
What is depleted uranium?
 It’s the byproduct of the enrichment
process of the natural uranium.
 Contains less than one third as much U-
235 and U-234 as natural uranium.
 DU is also found in reprocessed spent
nuclear reactor fuel.
 The external radiation dose from DU is
about 60 percent of that from the same
mass of natural uranium.
 DU has been called Q-metal, depletalloy, and
D-38.
 DU is a useful material due to its high density
about twice that of lead.

This is a small piece of depleted Depleted Uranium is stored as

uranium ampouled under argon. Uranium Fluoride (UF6) in giant cylinders .
Civilian Applications:
 Shielding in industrial radiography cameras.

 Trim weights in aircraft.

 Containers used to transport radioactive

materials.

 Coloring in consumer products.

Military Applications:
 Armuor plate.

 Nuclear weapons.

 Ammunition.
Health Effects:

 Radioactivity.

 Chemical Toxicity.
The Figure illustrates the process of neoplastic transformation which is a multistep
process.
Examples of chromosomal
damage:measures of genotoxicity.
DU in The gulf & Iraq wars :
 Operation Desert Storm was the first
conflict to see the extensive use of DU
munitions and armor.

 An approach categorized the scenarios of

risks into three levels, depending on the
veterans' activities and the severity of the
exposure.
Six-year-old Fatma Rakwan, being held by her one of the deformed infants as a reason of DU
mother at the Basra Hospital for Maternity and
Children, was recently diagnosed with leukemia.

The woman in the foreground shares a room with four other cancer patients at the
Saddam Teaching Hospital in Basra. The patient lying on the bed behind died earlier
 Thank You

The D.o.D. is the united states’ department of defense