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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff10272009.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff10272009.html<br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">October 27,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Depleted Dirty
Bombers <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Pentagon Dirty Bombers
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By DAVE
LINDORFF <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">T</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>he Nuclear Regulator Commission is
considering an application by the US Army for a permit to have depleted
uranium at its Pohakuloa Training Area, a vast stretch of flat land in
what’s called the “saddle” between the sacred mountains of Mauna Loa and
Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s Big Island, and at the Schofield Barracks on the
island of Oahu. In fact, what the Army is asking for is a permit to leave
in place the DU left over from years of test firing of M101 mortar
“spotting rounds,” that each contained close to half a pound of depleted
uranium (DU). The Army, which originally denied that any DU weapons had
been used at either location, now says that as many as 2000 rounds of
M101 DU mortars might have been fired at Pohakuloa alone.<br><br>
But that’s only a small part of the story.<br><br>
The Army is actually seeking a master permit from the NRC to cover all
the sites where it has fired DU weapons, including penetrator shells
that, unlike the M101, are designed to hit targets and burn on impact,
turning the DU in the warhead into a fine dust of uranium oxide. Hearings
on this proposal were held in Hawaii on Aug. 26 and 27.<br><br>
Uranium particles, whether pure uranium or in an oxidized form, are alpha
emitters, and can be highly carcinogenic and mutagenic if ingested or
inhaled, since they can lodge in one part of the bodythe kidney or lung
or gonad, for exampleand then irradiate surrounding cells with large,
destructive alpha particles (actually helium atoms), until some gene is
compromised and a cell become malignant.<br><br>
Among the sites identified by the NRC as being contaminated with DU
are:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>Ft. Hood, TX<br>
<dd>Ft. Benning, GA<br>
<dd>Ft. Campbell, KY<br>
<dd>Ft. Knox, KY<br>
<dd>Ft. Lewis, WA<br>
<dd>Ft. Riley, KS<br>
<dd>Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD<br>
<dd>Ft. Dix, NJ<br>
<dd>Makua Military Reservation, HI<br><br>
</dl>Other locations identified as having DU weapons contamination
are:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>China Lake Air Warfare Center, CA<br>
<dd>Eglin AFB, Florida,<br>
<dd>Nellis AFB, NV<br>
<dd>Davis-Monthan AFB<br>
<dd>Kirtland AFB, NM<br>
<dd>White Sands Missile Range, NM<br>
<dd>Ethan Allen Firing Range, VT<br>
<dd>New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology<br><br>
</dl>An application for a 99-year permit to test DU weapons at the NM
Inst. Of Mining and Technology claimed that that site’s test area was “so
contaminated with DU…as to preclude any other use”!<br><br>
DU weapons have also been used by the Navy at Vieques Island off Puerto
Rico (the Navy claimed it was a “mistake.”<br><br>
The Pentagon continues a long history of claiming that DU--which is the
uranium that is left after the fissionable isotope U-235 is removed to
make nuclear fuel and bombs--is not dangerous, although this official
stance is belied by the warnings it has given to its troops (though not
to civilians in battle zones), to stay well clear of tanks and other
equipment destroyed by US tanks, which used DU weapons as the ordnance of
choice in both the Gulf War and the current Iraq War. During both wars,
DU ammunition was used by Army and Marine tanks, by the Bradley Fighting
Vehicle, the A-10 ground support jet, the Marine Harrier jet, and
specially equipped F16 fighter jets. The Navy also switched from DU
ammunition to tungsten ammunition in its Phalanx anti-missile ship
defense system because of health and environmental concerns with the DU
ammo.<br><br>
In both wars, a high percentage of troops have returned with many
physical ailments--auto-immune problems, cancers, and later, birth
defects in offspring--which have been referred to as Gulf War and now
Iraq War Syndrome. As many as a quarter of returning vets from the Gulf
War have reported strange illnesses and cancers and the numbers are
rising for Iraq War vets. As well, statistics from the National
Institutes of Health show that counties hosting bases and test facilities
where DU has been uses also show high cancer rates. This is certainly
true for Hawaii's Big Island, which has the highest cancer rates for the
Hawaiian archepelago. Meanwhile, the lung cancer rate for the Ft. Knox
area is 105-127 per 100,000 for the 2001-2005 period, high by state and
national standards. The rate is among the highest in the state of
Washington for Pierce County, where Ft. Lewis is located.<br><br>
The Pentagon denies that it uses depleted uranium in bombs, missiles and
cruise missile warheads, but military personnel have reported their use
in all three delivery systems, and reports exist of DU bunker-buster
bombs, DU-tipped penetrator warheads on Tomahawk cruise missiles and on
some air-to-ground missiles. <br><br>
It’s a good bet that all US munitions containing DU have been widely
tested at various US military bases and testing grounds.<br><br>
The bottom line is that at the same time that US government is continuing
to warn about the danger of terrorists acquiring the materials to make a
“dirty” bomb that could spread radioactive material in the US, the US
military has for years been doing exactly that, and continues to do so,
with no intention to clean up its messes, many of which are allowing
depleted uranium to percolate into ground water or flow down streams to
more populated areas.<br><br>
Of course, it could have been worse. The M101 mortar shells that litters
Pohakuloa were actually designed to serve as a range-finders for the Davy
Crocket mortar, which back in the late 1950s and the 1960s, and up until
1971 was designed to allow infantry troops to fire a small “tactical”
nuclear mortar shell at targets just one to two miles distant. Some 700
of these 57-lb. “little nukes”, which had a power of “just” several
kilotons or less, were developed and actually made their way into the
arsenals of troops in Europe and elsewhere during the Cold War.
Fortunately there are no reports of any of them having been fired off at
any of the military’s firing ranges, although the test detonation of one
in Nevada at an elevation of 40 feet above ground was the last case of
open-air testing before JFK’s open-air test moratorium went into
effect--especially given that their radiation ipact radius was larger
than their firing range, meaning that launching one was by definition an
automatic suicide mission. <br><br>
Then again, the Pentagon doesn’t exactly have a sterling record about
telling the truth where nuclear weapons and DU weapons are concerned.
(You start to notice as you look into this stuff that with uranium
weapons, the military's attitude towards troop safety is not a whole lot
better than its attitude towards the people at the downrange end of the
line.)<br><br>
Nor is the NRC to be relied on to protect the American public. As an
administrative judge wrote in a ruling on a case involving DU
contamination at Jefferson Proving Ground in Indiana, the NRC exhibited a
“more than casual attitude with regard to decommissioning of sites on
which radioactive materials remain as a potential threat to public health
and safety and to the environment.”<br><br>
In another case, involving cleanup of the ShieldAlloy Metallurgical
Corp.’s site in Newfield, NJ, where DU weapons were made, a judge said,
“at the very least, the (NRC) staff has countenanced…a situation that
will leave the citizens in the area surrounding the activity site in
doubt for close to two decades regarding what measures will ultimately be
taken for their protection.”<br><br>
Dave Lindorff</b> is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist.
His latest book is
“<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/031237254X/counterpunchmaga">
The Case for Impeachment</a>” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006 and now available
in paperback). He can be reached at
<a href="mailto:dlindorff@mindspring.com">dlindorff@mindspring.com</a><br>
<br>
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