Depleted Uranium is known for its density, and it’s not quite as radioactive as U235. Still radioactive, but not “touching it will instantly kill you” sort of radioactive
It’s not as radioactive, but as a heavy metal, it is toxic regardless. It’s known to damage the kidneys, brain, liver, thyroid, and heart, even without any radiation involved.
US military veterans say they’ve developed nasty illnesses from handling the stuff. The US military “investigated,” and found it was totally safe. So you can draw your own conclusions.
Just speculation, but it could be that the armor is safe in the sense if just sitting there it won’t do anything. However when penetrated the DU is obviously going to break out and float around in the air. Before modern tank armor, a hit usually meant death, these days though if your ammo rack doesn’t go kaput you’ll maybe survive. And in doing so, be exposed to the toxic DU particles that just got sprayed everywhere.
Depleted Uranium is known for its density, and it’s not quite as radioactive as U235. Still radioactive, but not “touching it will instantly kill you” sort of radioactive
It’s not as radioactive, but as a heavy metal, it is toxic regardless. It’s known to damage the kidneys, brain, liver, thyroid, and heart, even without any radiation involved.
But wouldn’t you have to ingest it somehow? Or is it absorbed into the skin?
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When the tank gets hit, some particles would probably get knocked off and start floating around where you could inhale them.
Surely it’s still toxic? As all heavy metals tend to be
US military veterans say they’ve developed nasty illnesses from handling the stuff. The US military “investigated,” and found it was totally safe. So you can draw your own conclusions.
Just speculation, but it could be that the armor is safe in the sense if just sitting there it won’t do anything. However when penetrated the DU is obviously going to break out and float around in the air. Before modern tank armor, a hit usually meant death, these days though if your ammo rack doesn’t go kaput you’ll maybe survive. And in doing so, be exposed to the toxic DU particles that just got sprayed everywhere.
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It is, yes, just not as radioactive
Well, yes, but not “being exposed to it will completely degenerate your DNA and burn the patterns on your clothes into your skin” type of toxic