Britain has confirmed it will donate tanks with depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine. The announcement has been met with accusations from Russia of the use of “weapons with a nuclear component” and “a step closer to nuclear war”.
However, Christian Ekberg believes that the comparison between depleted uranium and nuclear weapons is dangerously lame.
– Depleted uranium is an element and a heavy metal. The radioactivity is not dangerous at all, he says.
Irrational fear of radiation
He explains that depleted uranium, somewhat simplified, is a residual product from the enrichment of uranium into nuclear fuel. It is heavier than lead and is therefore used in armor-piercing projectiles.
But why is depleted uranium considered so controversial to use as a weapon? Christian Ekberg believes that it is about a built-in fear of radiation – which is grateful to exploit.
– We cannot feel it, taste it, see or hear radioactive radiation. We have no senses to detect it and therefore it is perceived as frightening, he says.
“Nervous”
Both during the Gulf War and the war in the Balkans, a lot of depleted uranium was used and it was then linked, among other things, to an increase in leukemia and congenital malformations among the civilian population in Iraq. Closer studies have not been able to prove the connection. The World Health Organization WHO also stated in a 2013 report that no increase in congenital malformations could be found.
Christer Ekberg believes that drawing parallels to nuclear weapons on the part of Russia is instead about something completely different:
– Putin is nervous that Ukraine will knock out his tanks.
In the clip, Professor Christer Ekberg explains how depleted uranium is used and why it is such an effective weapon.