Pentagon Counters Russian Claim on Depleted Uranium Rounds for Abrams in Ukraine

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

Known for “piercing” armor and sharpening and “igniting” after contact, Depleted Uranium tank rounds have been fired by US Army Abrams and other tanks for decades, as they are known as an optimal method of destroying enemy armored vehicles … particularly in tank-on-tank warfare. 

Following heated and well-publized criticisms from Russian President Vladimir Putin that Depleted Uranium presented extreme health risks including an increased risk for certain types of cancers.  Citing international use of the DU rounds and a number of official sources, Pentagon officials flat out contradicted and dismissed Russian criticisms regarding the use of the rounds. 

“The CDC has stated that there is no evidence that the depleted uranium rounds cause cancer. The World Health Organization reports that there has been no increase of leukemia or other cancers and — that have been established following any exposure to uranium or D.U. And even the IAEA has stated unequivocally that there is no proven link between D.U. exposure and increases in cancers or significant health or environmental impacts,”  Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters, according to a Pentagon transcript. 

An interesting write up on the BBC quotes the International Atomic Energy Agency in an excerpt which seems to verify and validate the Pentagon’s citation. Depleted Uranian cannot generate a nuclear reaction and is considered “considerably less radioactive than natural uranium”, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency,'” the BBC essay says. 

An essay published in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s “Journal of Environmental Radioactivity” further affirms this assessment.  Although the IAEA does cite risks associated with internal consumption of DU through contaminated water and food, there does not appear to be acute risk associated with external exposure, particularly if limited and not chronic. 

“Due to the low specific radioactivity and the dominance of alpharadiation no acute risk is attributed to external exposure to DU,”  the essay states.  Another scholarly assessment of DU in the National Institute of Health, National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information verifies that indeed the substantial risk appears to be associated with internal consumption, something not likely to occur with the firing of tank rounds.