Where to get depleted uranium?

IIRC, the army depends on tungsten shipments from China to make their ammo.

Makes for an interesting home workshop experience, then!

Or flying at 30,000 ft, I believe.

I got a bunch of it out of and old RF-4c that used it for ballast when they removed caeras. They are little blocks about 1/2" x 1" x 1 1/2" in size,,,,,,,and heavy as hell. They are coated with some type of coating. We used to have a container about the size of a 3 pound coffee can setting on the table, filled with them. We used to say to new guys, Hey, how about sliding that can of blocks over here..they would about push their shoulder out of joint trying to just slide that can across the table. Been told as long as the coating is on them and you do not drill, machine or weld on them they are safe. I use em for weights etc when I glue up odds and ends.....

============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!

DU isn't zero radiation.

Our troops hunt it down and salvage the gunship targets for used DU. They look for radiation.

Martin

Actually, it is! As I recall, removed granite waste is a low-level radiation "hazard".

Banannas will also kick off geiger counters, I guess they are too commonly used by the public to be classed though.

Tim

-- "California is the breakfast state: fruits, nuts and flakes." Website:

Distracting...I like that.

Flaming spalls the temperature of the face of the sun ricochetting at ultra high speeds around the inside of the crew compartment setting fire to the hydraulics, padding, clothing, ammunition.....

Distracting..thats good.

Gunner

Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error"

U235

Correct.

And the basements of houses built on granite fill up with Radon. There's plenty of radioactive fallout from the 50s, the CO2 in the air is has Carbon-14, water has tritium, potassium-40 occurs in natural potassium, which is everywhere, including bannanas and people. Space is full of natural fusion reactors, the earth has Van Allan belts, recently we got hit with a massive cosmic ray burst, etc.

In rec.crafts.metalworking Martin H. Eastburn wrote: (snip)

DU is a very mild alpha emitter. Alpha particles are stopped by a sheet of paper or your skin.

So, the quick way to obtain a quantity of DU would be to go to Bagdad and point something at a chopper?

- -

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 05:36:25 GMT, the inscrutable Gunner spake:

Radioactive gas from burning DU gets into the body via the lungs and eventually kills the breather.

That's a bit distracting, too, isn't it?

========================================================= What doesn't kill you +

you hurt more. + Web application programming =========================================================

Well...somewhere, in some secure storage facility, are dozens or hundreds of white "bunny suits", gloves, masks, hats, and assorted clothing worn by me, while working in the "hot lab". I was packaging _very_ low level solid sources into test fixtures (for tuning medical nuclear imaging scanners). Even the packing materials are in some "low level nuclear waste" facility, even though the bags couldn't leave our hot lab if there was _any_ detectable radiation level.

I have to try that tonight. The potassium, I suppose?

Dave "What, doesn't _everyone_ have a Geiger counter at home?" Hinz

Quick, yes. Not sure I'd call it "best" or "practical", but it would be effective.

Id not worry too much about the radioactive gas part. Those flaming spalls at high speed and the exploding ammo tend to make any long term consequences pretty much a moot point.

Ever drop a hotdog in a blender?

Gunner

Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error"

I used to work for General Dynamics, the company that made the Phalanx. But that is off topic.

I saw a show recently that stated the the US Army is switching to a tungsten/plastic mixture for bullets to replace lead. They call it a green bullet because it is more environmentally friendly. They claim that they spend a lot of money cleaning up shooting ranges from the lead contamination. That is probably true. However, I bet the higher mass for the same caliber has something to do with the decision as well. Since it is tungsten powder glued together with plastic, I bet the bullet brakes up to powder upon impact. That means that all the energy is absorbed by the target. It should still incapacitate you from the impact, even if you were wearing body armor. Just speculation on my part. No armor would mean even more damage than a normal round.

Not true, although it is denser.

Get in a war with the US or NATO and the military will deliver it, no charge even!

Tim.

I have 4 . And various dosimeters. All work just hunkey dory. I hope they never get used.

Gunner

Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error"

So where does one buy a geiger counter, if one were so inclined?

- - Rex Burkheimer

Gunner wrote:

Sorry, just a typo - I should have said tungsten instead of titanium.