A court in Florence has sentenced the Italian Ministry of Defence to pay a veteran to compensate for his health problems caused by exposure to uranium ammunition during his military service in Somalia. The judges based their decision on a legal-medical opinion. This in turn took into account material provided to the court by socialist member of parliament Falco Accame. He is president of the organisation “Anavafaf”, which represents soldiers on active duty with high efficiency. Falco Accame refused from the beginning to accept the offical lies about the alleged harmlessness of NATO uranium ammunition. Already after Israels Lebanon war of 1982 he had experienced the health problems of Italian soldiers after their contact with similar shells in Lebanon.
The decisive argument for the positive verdict in this trial – before a civil court – was the fact that the Italian ministry of defence failed to provide sufficient ABC protection gear to their soldiers, neither in Somalia 1993 nor during the Balkan war, although being aware of US directives about proper handling of uranium.

From Documents:

“The main hazard associated with depleted uranium is the harmful effect the material could have if it enters the body. If particles are inhaled or digested they can be chemically toxic and cause a significant and long lasting irradiation of internal tissue.”

Source: Document as of 20.12.1984, AWS 330, signed by Robert Beard, States assistant secretary general for defense support 1984 -87.

In a research paper about the use of uranium containing weapons from 1977/78, performed by the  Airforce Armament Laboratory, Eglin Air Force Base Florida, it is promised that their results will be provided to military personnel involved in testing or handling such weapons on the battlefield for their protection.
In a memorandum from 1993 it is clearly pointed out that “when soldiers inhale or ingest DU dust, they incur a potential increase in cancer risk”.

Source: Departement of the Army, Office of the Surgeon General, 5109 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church VA. Memorandum for headquarters U.S. Army Chemical School. ATTN: ATZN-CM-N, Fort McClellan, AL 36205, Subject: depleted uranium (DU) safety training, 16.8.1993

These documents prove that Italy and all other NATO states probably as well were fully aware of the consequences when they bombarded Serbia with tons and tons of these substances during the Balkan wars.
Current Concerns had asked two experts in the beginning of last year to conduct thorough investigations of soil samples from Serbia. The results were published in Current Concerns in June 2008. They are frightening. Now it became apparent from the investigation of additional factors that the term “depleted uranium”may well be deliberately misleading. On 9.2.2009 Zeit-Fragen reported unter the title “Little Hiroshima...” about the research of the Serbian expert Mirjana Andjelkovic-Lukic – about the bombardment of Serbia in 1999. The hypothesis that the damage was caused by “little Hiroshima Bombs” is now backed by results of measurements performed by these two German nuclear physics experts. After several years of work they were able to find “hard” measuring methods for the detection of small remnants left behind by such little nuclear explosions.

The editorial staff of Current Concerns

Part 2: gamma ray spectrometry, energy of beta radiation sources, study of changes in the natural isotope proportions

In Current Concerns No 6 2008 we reported about the results of measurements of radioactivity of two soil samples from Serbia.
In the meantime the changes in the natural isotope proportions could be established with gamma ray spectrometry and chemical engineering analysis of special elements in four more samples. With one sample with high beta activity it was possible to establish the maximum range of beta radiation in aluminium and the maximum energy and the classification of isotopes respectively.

1. Gamma ray spectrometry

The findings in the four new samples (NS-15, NS-40, Pa-290g, Av-370g) are summarized in table 1.
Peculiar is the sample Av-370g:
•    The relationship of uranium 238 / 235 points to “enriched uranium”.
•    The concentrations of uranium, thorium and potassium 40 are high in comparison to other samples.
•    2976 Bq/kg of potassium 40 correspond (in a natural proportion of isotopes) with an unusually high content of potassium of 9,5 percentage per weight.

2. Changes in the natural isotope proportions

The high concentration in the activity of potassium 40 arises the suspicion of a change in the natural isotope proportions due to radiation. Natural potassium: K 39 / 93,94%,
K 40 / 0,0117%, K 41 / 6,73%.
The change can be established by determining the overall concentration of potassium with the method of chemical engineering and by determining the proportion of potassium 40 with gamma ray spectrometry.
Table 2 shows the respective results of three samples from Serbia and one matching sample from a far away country: The samples from Serbia show an increase of the concentration of potassium 40 by significant factors between 7 and 132.
Alterations like this, for example in the nuclear reaction Ca 40 (n,p) K 40, only happen in a neutron fluence like in nuclear explosions.

3. The maximum energy of the beta radiation sources

The maximum energy of the unknown pure beta radiation sources has been determined by measuring the maximum range of electrons in aluminium. Peculiar drops in the absorbtion curves are found in the area of 30 mg/cm2 (0,156 MeV) and 180 mg/cm2 (0,55 MeV). These energies can be assigned to carbon 14 and beryllium 10. Both isotopes originate for example in (n,p) reactions from nitrogen and boron 10 respectively.
Beta radiation with energies above 0,15 MeV can cause monochromatic (blue) Cerenkov-radiation in water. Radiation like that has been observed in bodies of water in Serbia in 1999. The level of radiation in case of the occurrence of effects like these is considerable.

4. Conclusions from the perspective of radiation protection

The level of the inner exposure to radiation in a human being is up to now predominantly determined by potassium 40. It is about 0,2 mSv/a.
The increase of the concentration of potassium 40 by the factor 100 leads to a very critical level of contamination (20 mSv/a !!). Potassium has very important physiological functions in the human body.
In the “carbon” there must also have happened a shifting in the isotope proportions towards the radioactive isotope carbon 14. An increase of the level of radiation in this respect can only be estimated if specific C 14 measurements have been done, for example in the annual growth rings of trees.

Annex
table 1: gamma ray spectrometry, 2nd series, Serbia
table 2: changes in the proportions of isotopes of potassium in soil samples

February 17th, 2009
Dipl. Ing. H.W. Gabriel
Dr. D. Schalch