Experimental results on the environmental samples collected around sites in South Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro where DU weapons were deployed in 1999

Gaca, P., Žunic, Z.S., Mietelski, J.W., Tomankiewicz, Ewa and Waligórski, M.P.R. (2005) Experimental results on the environmental samples collected around sites in South Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro where DU weapons were deployed in 1999. Radioactivity in the Environment, 7 (C), 1056-1063. (doi:10.1016/S1569-4860(04)07130-X).

Abstract

In a survey performed to estimate the presence of DU in regions where DU ammunition had been deployed, no clear evidence of its presence in the local environment or in the bodies of local inhabitants was observed, except in samples that came into direct or very close contact with DU penetrators. The activity ratios of particular interest (235U to 238U and 234U to 238U) in general tend to show typical values observed in the natural environment. The only environmental sample analyzed by alpha spectrometry to show an abnormal activity ratio suggesting the presence of DU was a piece of scrap metal covered with dust. This may have been an element of military equipment that had been fired at with DU armor-piercing ammunition. Samples of dust collected on air filters were too small to obtain conclusive results. Large volume air samplers should be used in the future to study the environmental pathways of DU over longer time periods.

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