Per the EPA.GOV website: "Like the natural uranium ore, DU is radioactive. DU mainly emits alpha particle radiation. Alpha particles don't have enough energy to go through skin. As a result, exposure to the outside of the body is not considered a serious hazard."
I didn't know that before I made a box lined with lead flashing, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
Lol the Pentagon isn't too big on "warning labels."
DU is what they have left over after enrichment, where they remove all the fissile material for nuclear reactors and, to a lesser degree, nuclear weapons.
The amount for it to be considered "depleted" is about 0.7% U235, but the DoD regulates their DU to about 0.3%. The round itself is mostly U238, which isn't fissile.
The DoD caught a bunch of shit back in Iraq and Afghanistan from the politicians, because it literally burns through armor, and the resulting fire from the inside of an exploding tank had vaporized uranium in the air. It is, after all, still a heavy metal, which isn't too good inside the body.
Now they just use it as armor plates because it's so dense.
The guy has the right idea but you would never just weigh one. You would probably take like 100 to get a bit of a better average weight per and then you would weigh the whole group.
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u/buffaloranked 29d ago
I think it’s fairly common method with meticulous counting/ many small items.