High radiation level found after Israeli bombing in Lebanon

[JCMach1]

THIS IS NOT JUST DU... ISRAELIS WERE EXPERIMENTING WITH NUCLEAR MUNITIONS... PLEASE NOTE THAT THE SOURCE IS AFP

LONDON - Scientists studying samples of soil thrown up by Israeli bombing in Lebanon have shown high radiation levels, suggesting uranium-based munitions were used, a British newspaper reported on Saturday.

The samples were taken from two bomb craters in Khiam and At-Tiri and have been sent for further analysis to the Harwell laboratory in Oxfordshire, southern England, for mass spectrometry used by the Ministry of Defence, The Independent said...

there were two possible reasons for the contamination.

‘The first is that the weapon was some novel small experimental nuclear fission device or experimental weapon (eg. a thermobaric weapon) based on the high temperature of a uranium oxidation flash,’ it said.

‘The second is that the weapon was a bunker-busting conventional uranium penetrator weapon employing enriched uranium rather than depleted uranium,’ Busby was quoted as saying... http://khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/October/middleeast_October453.xml§ion=middleeast

[The_Warmth]

1. wow

if i could turn radiation to sunshine this would be a beautiful world.

[Poll_Blind]

2. !.....?.......(?).....n/t

PB

[Englander]

3. The Indy article;

Robert Fisk: Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb

Alarm over radioactive legacy left by attack on Lebanon

Published: 28 October 2006

>snip

But scientific evidence gathered from at least two bomb craters in Khiam and At-Tiri, the scene of fierce fighting between Hizbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops last July and August, suggests that uranium-based munitions may now also be included in Israel's weapons inventory - and were used against targets in Lebanon. According to Dr Chris Busby, the British Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, two soil samples thrown up by Israeli heavy or guided bombs showed "elevated radiation signatures". Both have been forwarded for further examination to the Harwell laboratory in Oxfordshire for mass spectrometry - used by the Ministry of Defence - which has confirmed the concentration of uranium isotopes in the samples.

Dr Busby's initial report states that there are two possible reasons for the contamination. "The first is that the weapon was some novel small experimental nuclear fission device or other experimental weapon (eg, a thermobaric weapon) based on the high temperature of a uranium oxidation flash ... The second is that the weapon was a bunker-busting conventional uranium penetrator weapon employing enriched uranium rather than depleted uranium." A photograph of the explosion of the first bomb shows large clouds of black smoke that might result from burning uranium.

Enriched uranium is produced from natural uranium ore and is used as fuel for nuclear reactors. A waste productof the enrichment process is depleted uranium, it is an extremely hard metal used in anti-tank missiles for penetrating armour. Depleted uranium is less radioactive than natural uranium, which is less radioactive than enriched uranium.

>snip

Chris Bellamy, the professor of military science and doctrine at Cranfield University, who has reviewed the Busby report, said: "At worst it's some sort of experimental weapon with an enriched uranium component the purpose of which we don't yet know. At best - if you can say that - it shows a remarkably cavalier attitude to the use of nuclear waste products."

The soil sample from Khiam - site of a notorious torture prison when Israel occupied southern Lebanon between 1978 and 2000, and a frontline Hizbollah stronghold in the summer war - was a piece of impacted red earth from an explosion; the isotope ratio was 108, indicative of the presence of enriched uranium. "The health effects on local civilian populations following the use of large uranium penetrators and the large amounts of respirable uranium oxide particles in the atmosphere," the Busby report says, "are likely to be significant ... we recommend that the area is examined for further traces of these weapons with a view to clean up."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1935945.ece

[NOLADEM]

4. This is likely from Depleted Uranium shells provided by the US

[TheBaldyMan]

5. don't think it would be undepleted uranium, there would be no point

it almost weighs the same with similar density. Chemically they are identical. Uranium that has not been refined (into fissile grade and depleted fractions) wouldn't be used for the production of KE weapons.

Most likely the Israelis were using DU munitions, the idea of a thermobaric weapon is intriguing but I would suspect that there are more likely candidates for materials for that kind of weapon. Cost doesn't seem to be an option when it comes to weaponry development.

[lovuian]

6. I say again that was the flash we saw in Iraq's when the

uS Ammunition dump exploded