Uranium Content in the Soil of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia After NATO Intervention
Meeting report UDC: -034.822:614.77:355.469.2(497.1) Archive of Oncology 2001;9(4):245-9. Uranium content in the soil of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after NATO intervention Nada R. MILJEVIÆ1 Depleted uranium (DU) is a by-product of the uranium enrichment process. NATO has Mirjana M. MARKOVIÆ1 used DU ammunition in the Yugoslav conflict, in air strikes of tanks and bunkers. An estimated number of about 3,000-10,000 of 30 mm DU rounds of armor-piercing Dragana J. TODOROVIÆ1 2 shells were fired from cannons fitted to A-10 aircraft and probably used in some of the Mirjana R. CVIJOVIÆ 1,500 launched Tomahawk Cruise missiles. We measured the uranium content in the 1 Du¹an D. GOLOBOÈANIN surface soil (0-5 cm depth) from bomb craters after NATO strikes. The selected loca- 1 Milan P. ORLIÆ tions were Belgrade, Smederevo, Ni¹, Bor, Prahovo, Kadinjaèa, Jadovnik, Ra¹ka, Dragan S. VESELINOVIÆ3 Sjenica, and Cape Arza. The total uranium concentration and isotopic ratio were deter- Rade N. BIOÈANIN4 mined using g-spectrometry and the inductively coupled plasma method. The obtained values ranged from 21 to 762.000 Bq/kg of dry soil. At all locations, except Cape Arza, 1 INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR SCIENCES "VINÈA", BELGRADE, these values were comparable with the uranium content of soils measured at off-site YUGOSLAVIA locations. 2THE COPPER MILL SEVOJNO, THE MAIN LABORATORY AND QUALITY CONTROL, SEVOJNO, YUGOSLAVIA KEY WORDS: Uranium; Spectrometry, Gamma; Soil Pollutants, Radioactive; Radiation, 3FACULTY OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, UNIVERSITY OF Monitoring, Yugoslavia; War; Nuclear Warfare BELGRADE, BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA Archive of Oncology 2001,9(4):245-249©2001,Institute of Oncology Sremska Kamenica, Yugoslavia 4YUGOSLAV ARMY, BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA INTRODUCTION specificity and sensitivity of the g-spectrometry and the inductive- ATO has used depleted uranium (DU) ammunition in ly coupled plasma (ICP) methods.
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