According to a well-worn advertising slogan, “A Diamond is Forever.” To this I would add, “and so is depleted uranium.” Although depleted uranium (DU) is only mildly radioactive, it remains radioactive for an extraordinarily long time. The half-life of uranium-238 — the principal constituent of DU — is about 4.5 billion years, roughly the age of the earth. “Half-life” refers to the time it takes for half the atoms of a given quantity of a radioactive isotope to decay into another element. In other words, in 4.5 billion years, fully half of the U-238 stored in Tooele County will still be here. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the DU will have decayed into more dangerous materials such as radium, and its daughter product, radon gas. Even though DU is only mildly radioactive, it is still dangerous. A person can safely hold a metallic bar of U-238 in his or her hand because the radiation is so weak that it can’t penetrate the dead skin cells that form the outer surface of the body. If, however, the material were in powdered form — as it is at the EnergySolutions storage area — inhaling or ingesting the powder could pose a cancer risk. Who can guarantee that the DU powder will be safely contained and protected against storms and floods and heaven knows what for billions of years? The answer is obvious: no one. A diamond represents everlasting love. Depleted uranium represents an everlasting danger — a danger we can all live without.

Frank Musgrave

Tooele