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劣化ウランが発掘されると信じられている
環境庁は、軍が、基地にもっとそのような砲弾があるかどうか
調べることを求めている。
Depleted uranium believed unearthed
EPA wants the military to investigate whether there are more such rounds on the base.

ＮＯ　ＤＵ　ヒロシマ・プロジェクトＭＬより
（佐藤周一仮訳 途中まで）

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/depleteduranium5.htm

Depleted uranium believed unearthed
EPA wants the military to investigate whether there are more such rounds on the base.
劣化ウランが発掘されると信じられている
環境庁は、軍が、基地にもっとそのような砲弾があるかどうか調べることを求めている。
By AMANDA LEHMERT and KEVIN DENNEHY
STAFF WRITERs


エドワード基地　陸軍の請け負い業者は、先週、２０ｍｍ劣化ウラン弾と思われるものを発見した。

その弾は、取り壊し区域１と呼ばれる地下水浄化地域で発見され、昨日、メリーランドのアバディーン実験場へ、更なる分析のため船積みされた。

敵戦車の装甲を打ち抜くことができるので、効果的で価値ある弾丸だと国防総省が考える劣化ウラン弾は、毒性と放射性がある。

第一次湾岸戦争中の劣化ウランへの被曝は、湾岸戦争症候群の原因だと主張する科学者もいる。国防総省の当局者はこうした主張を暴露している。

陸軍の当局者が長い間、劣化ウランはエドワード基地では発射されていないと主張していたが、軍はいつもは、兵器を改善したり開発した国防請負業者の行動を監視していないと主張するアッパー岬の基地運動家もいた。

昨日、弾が発見されたことで、軍と環境行政当局者は困っている。

「我々にとって予期せぬ発見であり、軍が完全に調査をして、他の劣化ウランでできた器物が、基地の中や、Demo１の内外にないかどうかはっきりさせることが重要だ」と、環境庁のジム・マーフィー報道官は語った。

「我々や大衆に対して、どのようにしてそれが得られ、いつ使われ、どんな目的だったのか知らせることが重要だ」

環境庁は、陸軍からの更なる情報をまっていると同報道官は述べた。

陸軍当局者は、弾は人々の健康には危険は無く、爆発性も無いと語った。

その２．５インチ弾は、現在行われているエドワード基地の清掃の一部としての発掘作業の途中で発見されたのだが、焼けたと思われる穴の土の１フィートの深さのところで見つかった。

影響のある地域の地下水を研究するプログラムの当局者は、当基地の清掃をコーディネートしていたが、弾は、焼けていたかもしれないと語った。

弾は先端に風よけと呼ばれる蓋がついており、後ろには、一部壊れたナイロンの回転環がついていたため、調査官は、それは燃えてはいなかったと信じた。

調査官は、放射線を図る機械で検査後、弾は劣化ウラン弾と結論付けたと、地下水プログラムの経営者のケント・ハップ・ゴンサ?は述べた。

「非常に低い放射性を検出した」

取り壊しエリア１では、その弾が見つかったが、基地の汚れた地下水源であり、スタッフは、ちょうど土を取り除き浄化しているところだった。

顕著な健康への危険は、弾を扱った労働者にはないとゴンサ-は語った。

（途中まで）

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/depleteduranium5.htm

CAMP EDWARDS - Army contractors found what they believe to be a 20-millimeter depleted uranium round last week.

The round, found at a groundwater cleanup area called Demolition Area 1, was due to be shipped yesterday to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland for further analysis.

Considered by the Pentagon an effective and valuable munitions because they can pierce the armor of an enemy tank, depleted uranium is toxic and radioactive.

Some scientists insist exposure to depleted uranium during the first Gulf War was a cause of Gulf War syndrome illnesses. Department of Defense officials debunk the claim.

While Army officials have long insisted depleted uranium was never fired on Camp Edwards, some Upper Cape base activists insist the military didn't always monitor the activities of defense contractors who improved and developed weapons.

Military and environmental officials yesterday were perplexed by the discovery.

"It was an unexpected discovery for us and it's important that the military thoroughly investigate to determine whether there are other depleted uranium items on the base or out in Demo 1," said Jim Murphy, Environmental Protection Agency spokesman.

"It's important to inform us and the public about how it got there, when it was used, and for what purpose."

The EPA is waiting for more information from the Army, Murphy said.

Army officials said the round is not a danger to public health and is not explosive.

The 2.5-inch round, discovered during excavation as part of the ongoing Camp Edwards cleanup, was found about a foot deep in the soil of a possible burn pit.

Officials with the Impact Area Groundwater Study Program, which is coordinating the base cleanup, say the round could have been burned.

The round had a cap called a wind shelf on the tip and a partially broken nylon rotating ring on the back, leading the investigators to believe it had not been fired.

Investigators concluded it was a depleted uranium round after testing it with a machine that measures radioactivity, said groundwater program manager Kent "Hap" Gonser.

"They found it was giving off very low levels of radioactivity."

Demolition Area I, where the bullet was discovered, is a source of groundwater contamination on the base, and crews are currently removing and cleaning the soil.

There isn't a significant heath risk to the workers who handled the round, Gonser said.

Depleted uranium, or DU, is what remains when uranium 235 is extracted from ore to make nuclear bombs and fuel for nuclear reactors.

Twice as dense as lead, it can slice through the thick steel of a tank like a heat-seeking dart.

Textron Systems Corp. of Wilmington, and its predecessor, AVCO, was one of the defense contractors that developed depleted uranium weapons.

Textron was also one of many contractors testing tactical weapons on the ranges of Camp Edwards near the Sandwich village of Forestdale.

From 1982 to 1984, Textron loaded 11 depleted uranium warheads onto missiles at Camp Edwards before shipping them to a test-firing facility in New Mexico, according to records the company provided to the National Guard a few years ago.

Weapons using depleted uranium were first used in combat during the first Gulf War, and continue to be used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gonser said it was difficult to tell where the round came from. It was corroded and had no markings.

Rounds of that type are typically used by the Navy, for anti-tank or anti-missile machine guns, Gonser said, Groundwater program officials have asked the Navy who would have permission to use the round in an effort to find out why it was unearthed on the Upper Cape base.

While Gonser said Textron shipped 11 rounds of depleted uranium through the base, those rounds were larger than the 20-millimeter round and there is no record of them being used on the base.

"The Guard says they don't know where it came from. How can that be?" said Richard Hugus of Falmouth, a member of the citizen panel that monitors the Camp Edwards cleanup.

James Kinney of Sandwich, another member of the panel, is likewise skeptical. He says the markings on, and holes in, thick steel targets on the firing ranges at Camp Edwards made some suspicious that depleted uranium weapons had been fired there.

Tests of the targets and soil yielded no evidence that levels of radiation were any higher than background radiation.

But if the Army determines that the new round does contain depleted uranium, Kinney said, it will only stoke those concerns.

"I don't think anyone just happened to have one depleted uranium round out there that fell out of their pocket," Kinney said yesterday. "If there was one, I'm sure there were more."

Part of the uncertainty, he said, is that the Guard never learned the extent of contractor work done on the base.

"It's definitely a concern and a cause for a full investigation."

(Published: June 5, 2004)