Oh Boy-- Government Seeks Permit For Outdoor Explosions Using Depleted Uranium

[Monkeyman]

Tons Of mildly radioactive material could be blown up if explosives testing permit is approved for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Analysis of an air pollution permit application filed two weeks ago shows that tons of radioactive depleted uranium and other toxic heavy metals could be blown up in outdoor military test blast near Tracy.

Yearly, 20 explosions could each vaporize 220 pounds of depleted uranium at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Site 300 testing ground, off Corral Hollow Road in the San Joaquin Vally air basin.

http://tracypress.com/content/view/8873/2/

[StarryNite]

1. What the hell are they thinking!

WTF is wrong with these people?

[Monkeyman]

2. I just don't get this move

[Why Syzygy]

3. They have been commissioned to

create a NEW generation of atomic warheads. What else. Progress.

[TheWraith]

7. Depleted uranium has nothing to do with nuclear weapons.

It is, in fact, what's left over once you take out all the fissionable uranium, which is why it's called depleted.

[Monkeyman]

9. Thank You Beat Me To It

[StarryNite]

10. What is Depleted Uranium?

What is Depleted Uranium?

The misnamed 'Depleted' Uranium is left after enriched uranium is separated from natural uranium in order to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. During this process, the fissionable isotope Uranium 235 is separated from uranium. The remaining uranium, which is 99.8% uranium 238 is misleadingly called 'depleted uranium'. While the term 'depleted' implies it isn't particularly dangerous, in fact, this waste product of the nuclear industry is 'conveniently' disposed of by producing deadly weapons.

Depleted uranium is chemically toxic. It is an extremely dense, hard metal, and can cause chemical poisoning to the body in the same way as can lead or any other heavy metal. However, depleted uranium is also radiologically hazardous, as it spontaneously burns on impact, creating tiny aerosolised glass particles which are small enough to be inhaled. These uranium oxide particles emit all types of radiation, alpha, beta and gamma, and can be carried in the air over long distances. Depleted uranium has a half life of 4.5 billion years, and the presence of depleted uranium ceramic aerosols can pose a long term threat to human health and the environment.

http://www.cadu.org.uk/intro.htm

[Why Syzygy]

21. The facility has been

commissioned. As I said. Please read the article before jumping on someone.
They claim the two (destroying old and creating new weapons) are not related. They claim.

[StarryNite]

4. Divine Strake

It reminds me of the Divine Strake test that is or was planned for Nevada. Has anybody heard if that is still going to happen?

Ya know, the government does all this kind of crap and then everybody wonders why things are getting contaminated and why the Earth is turning into shit. Why are the bees dying? Pet food contamination, human food contamination etc...

[Monkeyman]

5. I heard its delayed but they won't say when

[cyberpj]

27. Hey - remember when Bush 1 wanted to send all our radioactive waste to the moon?

I don't really know why I thought of that just now but I did.
It wasn't a dream, it was a real suggestion back then.

[sam sarrha]

6. Depleted Uranium is reactor waste dumped in 3rd world countries, for Profit.!!!

the shit they have burned up in Iraq is showing up in monitors in GreenLand and the EU, it doesn't Vaporize!!! it you cant destroy matter, they are dispersing micro dust particles of Highly Toxic Uranium Heavy Metal Poison into a heavily populated area..probably to do a test on Extreme Birth defects in high density urban areas.. in an effort to disprove the charges that DU is causing extreme birth defects and lung and intestinal cancers in Baghdad. ..i shit you not, these fools really think like that, they can do no wrong.

it is probably the Uranium ingested and resulting heavy metal poisoning that is causing the extreme birth defects , around 15% of births in iraq.. not the radiation.

CAUTION EXTREMELY GRAPHIC PHOTOS OF BIRTH DEFECTS
GOOGLE; depleted uranium extreme birth defects ..and see why they hate our Democracy, about 15% of babys born in iraq have birth defects, gulf war1 disease was DU heavy metal poisoning

when we leave iraq they will not be able to bring much back into the USA because of DU contamination

[Monkeyman]

8. Yep

[onethatcares]

14. is this why none of the equipment is to come back?

I read that the jeeps/bradleys/and everything else used over there, stays there.

[Monkeyman]

15. One of the reasons

[Mnemosyne]

11. Filthy, rotten... knr n/t

:grr:

[MasonJar]

12. NO WAY! Contact all your reps.

[Monkeyman]

13. I did

[JohnyCanuck]

16. And when they're done blowing things up,

maybe they can use the land for some new houses and condos.

Dream Vacation: Sea, sand, and depleted uranium at Vieques

For nearly sixty years, Vieques, a tiny island off the southeast coast of Puerto Rico, was used as a heavy weapons target range for the U.S. Navy. In addition, says columnist Juan Gonzalez: "The U.S. government (was) not content to simply use Vieques for its own military. It (had) the audacity to rent out the island to the armed forces of Latin America and Europe." This deal earned Washington $80 million in 1998 alone but the roughly 9000 residents of Vieques faced socio-economic disaster. The fishing and tourism industries were wrecked and 50% of residents were unemployed while 72% lived in poverty.

SNIP

Fast forward to 2007 and you'll find travel articles extolling Vieques as an "untapped environment" with "pristine beaches" and "chic restaurants" perfect for the "upscale city dweller," the "nature lover," and the "spring breaker." And the radiation comes at no extra charge.

Among the tons of ordnance dropped on Vieques, the U.S. Navy admits to using depleted uranium (DU) armor-piercing shells. "When fired," writes journalist James Ridgeway, "the uranium bursts into flame and all but liquifies, searing through steel armor like a white hot phosphorescent flare." The effects of DU go far beyond the immediate explosion. "The uranium-238 used to make the weapons can cause cancer and genetic defects when inhaled," says former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

"Depleted uranium burns on contact," adds Dr. Helen Caldicott, "creating tiny aerosolized particles less than five microns in diameter, small enough to be inhaled." These particles can travel long distances when airborne-and don't be comforted by their size. "There is no safe dose or dose rate below which dangers disappear. No threshold-dose,'" explains John Gofman, former associate director of Livermore National Laboratory, one of the scientists who worked on the atomic bomb, and co-discoverer of uranium-233. "Serious, lethal effects from minimal radiation doses are not 'hypothetical,' 'just theoretical,' or 'imaginary.' They are real."

SNIP

Also real: Vieques, the new tourist hot spot, registers a 73 percent higher incidence of cancer than Puerto Rico as a whole. As Johnny Rotten howled: "A cheap holiday in other people's misery."

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/6931

[Monkeyman]

17. Sounds So Nice Gag

[Gloria]

18. Hey, isn't that an easy way to CONTAMINATE the already contaminated FOOD SUPPLY?????

HUH????? Don't they GROW THINGS in the San Joaquin Valley??????

[JohnyCanuck]

19. Maybe they're figuring there's just way too many of us useless eaters. n/t

[Monkeyman]

20. Grapes Oh No Wine

[uppityperson]

22. And this dust will go...away...? (from article)

The executive director of lab watchdog Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, Marylia Kelley, described as “unrealistic” the lab’s assumption that just 9 percent — or up to 720 pounds per year — of the uranium that could be blown up outdoors at Site 300 would be light enough for the wind to carry it away from the 7,000-acre weapons testing site.

Lab spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said the rest — as much as 7,300 pounds annually — would settle on the ground at the 50-year-old site, which is already listed by the EPA as one of the nation’s most-polluted pieces of land.

Some would stay there, the rest would go....away? And land....away, somewhere?

[Monkeyman]

23. With My Luck in my backyard

[uppityperson]

25. I remember my parents telling me to not eat the snow at times when I was young due to "fallout"

They explained that fallout was poison invisible dust, so don't eat the snow that day.

[EFerrari]

24. WTF?

There is NO WAY this will happen.

[Monkeyman]

26. Not So Sure Of That I hope your right

[EFerrari]

28. There are a lot of young professionals starting families there.

Some of them are my first cousins! I have calls to make. :(