When it comes to depleted uranium, among other things, it puts out a small amount of the very worst and most harmful of all radiation when it comes to human health: neutron radiation. Neutron radiation, in comparison to alpha, beta, gamma, and x-ray radiation, is the worst there is for human cells because of its mass/size. Alpha and beta don't go very far, they are like photons of light. However, they have some mass. They are charged electrons (about as small as you can imagine, maybe one-ten-thousandth the size of the nucleus of an atom, which includes protons and neutrons).
When electrons are emitted from an isotope, they are charged electrically and are therefore drawn to other electrons in the air or to other atoms. Alpha and beta particles travel only a few inches or feet from a source, such as U-238, and are then "knocked down" or attracted to other particles of matter.
Now a neutron is a different thing entirely, and that's one of the things depleted uranium emits. A neutron is, in relation to an alpha or beta particle or an electron something like a hot-air balloon or soccer ball compared to a marble. Imagine rolling a marble through a gymnasium full of basketballs on the floor. If the basketballs on the floor are ten feet apart, the marble has less of a chance of hitting a ball across the distance of the court. The larger the item you roll, the more chance it has to hit a basketball, such as a soccer ball would. And when the neutron hits another atom or electron, the mass/weight of it causes much worse damage. It either destroys a human cell or causes it damage which may cause it to mutate into a cancer cell.
NEUTRONS ARE LETHAL! And since the "depleted uranium" is, in fact, undergoing criticality (splitting and become numerous and varied particles of light, energy, electrons, heat, gamma rays, x-rays, etc.) it also puts out different elements and isotopes, going from perhaps U-238 to a radioactive isotope of iodine along with all the other aforementioned material and energy. The worst damage is done to human cells by the neutron, and there are numerous neutrons emitted with every splitting of the atom.
Standing next to depleted uranium is like standing next to a small, noiseless, miniature operating nuclear bomb without the concussion and heat. The neutron radiation kills or mutates human cells more than any other type of radiation. No noise, nothing detected by our senses, and it lasts for thousands or millions of years after a shell is fired. The effect of the neutron radiation on the human cell may not appear for years, such as in the case of cancer. And the longer the human cell is subjected to neutron radiation, the more chance of damage or death to the cells. Ingesting DU is extremely dangerous, as is being near a DU source, such as sleeping on it for days or months, due to the time it has to do damage.
Uranium is used because it is so dense that it can penetrate almost any type of armor meant to protect a tank or vehicle.
CL/HG
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MNA
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