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Depleted-Uranium Weapons : the Whys and Wherefores
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Gsponer, André |
| Copyright Year | 1988 |
| Abstract | It is recalled that the only non-nuclear military applicati on in which depleted-uranium alloys out-perform present-day tungste n alloys is long-rod penetration into a main battle-tank’s armor. However, this advantage is only on the order of 10%, and it disappears when the uranium versus tungsten comparison is made in terms of actual lethality of complete a n i-t nk systems instead of laboratory-type homogeneous armor steel penetr ation capability. Therefore, new microand nano-engineered tungsten alloys may soon be at least as good if not better than uranium alloys, enablin g the production of tungsten munition which will be better than existing uran ium munition, and whose overall life-cycle cost will be lower, due to the ab sence of the problems related to the radioactivity of uranium. The reasons why depleted-uranium weapons have been introdu ced into arsenals and used in Iraq and Yugoslavia are analysed from th e perspective that their radioactivity must have played an important role in the decision making process. It is found that depleted-uranium weapons b elong to the diffuse category of low-radiological-impact nuclear weapons t which emerging types of low-yield (i.e., fourth generation) nuclear explo sives also belong. It is concluded that the battlefield use of depleted-uranium in the 1991 Gulf War, which broke a 46-year-long taboo against the inten tional use or induction of radioactivity in combat, has created a milit ary and legal precedent which has trivialized the combat use of radioacti ve materials, and therefore made the use of nuclear weapons more probable. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0301059v7.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0301059v1.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0301059v3.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0301059v5.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
