Com-Central.net

Depleted Uranium
The AFV ASSOCIATION was formed in 1964 to support the thoughts and research of all those interested in Armored Fighting Vehicles and related topics, such as AFV drawings. The emphasis has always been on sharing information and communicating with other members of similar interests; e.g. German armor, Japanese AFVs, or whatever.

Forum Index › AFV News Discussion Board

View previous topic :: View next topic

Author

Message

MarkHolloway
Power User

Offline
Joined: Apr 08, 2006
Posts: 2054
Location: Beatty, Nevada

Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:03 pm Post subject: Depleted Uranium
What is the source of Depleted Uranium? Spent fuel? _________________ "TUMBLEWEED"

Jinx
Power User

Offline
Joined: Jan 24, 2006
Posts: 186
Location: Canada

Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:14 pm
Post subject: Re: Depleted Uranium

- MarkHolloway

What is the source of Depleted Uranium? Spent fuel?

Not quite. Depleted Uranium is produced during the enrichment process.

Here is a brief extract from the article on DU from Wikipedia :

( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ed_uranium )

"Natural uranium metal contains about 0.71% U-235, 99.28% U-238, and about 0.0054% U-234. Depleted uranium contains only 0.2% to 0.4% U-235, the remainder having been removed and concentrated into enriched uranium through the process of isotope separation. The enrichment process does not create U-235 but merely separates the different isotopes of uranium. Therefore the process leaves large amounts of U-238 uranium as a byproduct. This byproduct is referred to as depleted uranium. For example producing 1 kg of 5% enriched uranium requires 11.8 kg of natural uranium, leaving about 10.8 kg of depleted uranium with 0.3% U-235."

MarkHolloway
Power User

Offline
Joined: Apr 08, 2006
Posts: 2054
Location: Beatty, Nevada

Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:18 pm Post subject: Re: Depleted Uranium
Thanks! I learned something new _________________ "TUMBLEWEED"

Jinx
Power User

Offline
Joined: Jan 24, 2006
Posts: 186
Location: Canada

Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:25 pm
Post subject: Re: Depleted Uranium

- MarkHolloway

Thanks! I learned something new

You are welcome! And after reading further into the article, i learned that you can produce DU from spent fuel.....but this is really nasty stuff, contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive isotopes. (Scroll down in the article to the paragraph entitled "Dirty DU", about half-way down the page.) Fortunately not much of this has been used for military purposes.

mike_Duplessis
Power User

Offline
Joined: Jan 24, 2006
Posts: 236

Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 1:45 pm Post subject: Re: Depleted Uranium
I recall reading that te most DU radiation exposure experienced in a tank is to the driver driving head-up. When the turret's reversed the APFSDS round stowage is right there over his head - when the turret's forward one would suppose the main armor's right over him. The exposure numbers didn't sound particularly significant but I wouldn't want to make a 30 year career of it.

Forum Index › AFV News Discussion Board
Page 1 of 1

All times are GMT - 6 Hours

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum

Select Language

Login

`±`Recent Visitors

`±`User Info-big

Com-Central.net

Select Language

Login

±Recent Visitors

±User Info-big

`±`Recent Visitors

`±`User Info-big