US Nuclear Regulatory Commission & the recent DU petition

In April of 2005, James Salsman sent a petition to the US NRC that stated, in part:

I request that all licenses allowing the possession, transport, storage, or use of pyrophoric uranium munitions be modified to impose enforceable conditions on all such licensees in order to rectify their misconduct as described below, and anyother corrective action as deemed proper. The basis for this request is the gross negligence on the part ofthe licensees...

The US NRC's Director's Response states:

Several of the licenses (US Army) give authority to test-fire DU munitions, but only in an enclosed environment (i.e., a building where the munition impacts its target in an environmentally closed system). Firing the DU munitions in an enclosed environment minimizes the impact of pyrophoric characteristics, radiologic hazard, and chemical toxicity to personnel and the environment.

The US government constantly denies any ill-effect of the use of DU munitions. The above sounds like an admission that DU is a threat to the health and well-being of humans. Why, then, are we using the munitions like we are lobbing popsicles at a fire?

Better yet, the Uranium Medical Research Centre has admitted that "there is a distinct possibility of health hazards due to the considerable level of DU in the lungs at time zero". This is in reference to a study that was done on Gulf War I veterans. Read it.

Iraqi, Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, takes a look at the effects of DU on portions of the Iraqi population since 1991.

Melissa Sterry of New Haven, CT is a Gulf War I vet and is sick. She want to know why in 2000, Congress passed legislation authorizing medical compensation for families of sick or dead nuclear munitions workers, many with cancer, who were exposed on the job, but The Department of Defense, meanwhile, insists there is no reliable evidence that soldiers inhaling and ingesting that same anti-tank munitions dust are falling ill because of it.