Depleted-Uranium Weapons: the Whys and Wherefores
نویسنده
چکیده
It is recalled that the only non-nuclear military application in which depleted-uranium alloys out-perform present-day tungsten alloys is longrod penetration into a main battle-tank’s armor. However, this advantage is only on the order of 10% and disappearing when the uranium versus tungsten comparison is made in terms of actual lethality of complete anti-tank systems instead of laboratory-type homogeneous armor steel penetration capability. Therefore, new microand nano-engineered tungsten alloys may soon be at least as good if not better than uranium alloys, enabling the production of tungsten munition which will be better than existing uranium munition, and whose overall life-cycle cost will be less due to the absence of the problems related to the radioactivity of uranium. The reasons why depleted-uranium weapons have been introduced into arsenals and used in Iraq and Yugoslavia are analysed from the perspective that their radioactivity must have played an important role in the decision making process. It is found that depleted-uranium weapons belong to the diffuse category of low-radiological-impact nuclear weapons to which emerging types of low-yield, i.e., fourth generation, nuclear explosives also belong. It is concluded that the battlefield use of depleted-uranium, which broke a 46 years long taboo against the intentional use or induction of radioactivity in combat, has created a military and legal precedent which has trivialized the combat use of radioactive materials, and therefore made the use of nuclear weapons more probable.
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