Dave Lindorff: Pentagon Dirty Bombers, Depleted Uranium in the USA

Comment:  Depleted Uranium will be our Middle East's VAs agent orange (Vietnam VA)!  Pray for our troops and all our Veterans!

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 2:11pm. Dave Lindorff

The Nuclear Regulator Commission will be holding hearings tomorrow and Wednesday in Hawaii on an application by the U.S. 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 2, 000 rounds of M101 DU mortars might have been fired at Pohakuloa alone.

But that's only a small part of the story.

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.

Among the sites identified by the NRC as being contaminated with DU are: Ft. Hood, TX; Ft. Benning, GA; Ft. Campbell, KY; Ft. Knox, KY; Ft. Lewis, WA; Ft. Riley, KS; Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD; Ft. Dix, NJ; and Makua Military Reservation, HI.

Other locations identified as having DU weapons contamination are: China Lake Air Warfare Center, CA; Eglin AFB, FL; Nellis AFB, NV; Davis-Monthan AFB; Kirkland AFB, NM; White Sands Missile Range, NM; Ethan Allen Firing Range, VT; and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

An application for a 99-year permit to test DU weapons at the NM Institute Of Mining and Technology claimed that that site's test area was "so contaminated with DU…as to preclude any other use"!

DU weapons have also been used by the Navy at Vieques Island off Puerto Rico (the Navy claimed it was a "mistake."

The Pentagon continues a long history of claiming that DU 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 U.S. tanks, which used DU weapons as the ordnance of choice in both the Gulf War and the current Iraq War.

Read the complete post at or click Title:

http://blog.buzzflash.com/lindorff/284