Leuren Moret: A Conversation with the DU Expert
Recently, I met with scientist Leuren Moret in her Northern California home. As an international expert on depleted uranium (DU), Moret works tirelessly to educate the public about the dangers of DU weaponry for both soldiers and civilians alike. Her biography includes a five-year stint at the Lawrence Berkeley nuclear weapons lab and two years at the Livermore nuclear weapons lab. Moret, a former Environmental Commissioner for the City of Berkeley, contributed to an expert report on depleted uranium for the United Nations regarding the illegality of DU munitions. The groundbreaking documentary film, Beyond Treason, features Moret in a bone chilling interview, calmly discussing what she believes is the foremost challenge of our times: the use of depleted uranium weapons and its consequences for every citizen around the globe. This is Part One of my interview.
Sanborn: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me about depleted uranium. And thanks for playing my new song, “DU,” in your presentations around the world. (My new album, to be released this year, includes a song about depleted uranium.)
Moret: You’re welcome. I really love your song. It speaks to the pain that families feel when they have children born with defects caused by DU weapons.
Sanborn: For those who are new to the term, what is DU?
Moret: Depleted uranium is the waste product of the uranium enrichment process. They have to mine the uranium, extract the ore, and then remove half of one per cent of Uranium-235. The rest of it, 99.5%, is radioactive waste. It is pyrophoric at low temperatures (at 190 degrees Centigrade it will ignite.) As it burns at high temperatures it forms a radioactive poison gas.
Sanborn: So depleted uranium could be considered a weapon of mass destruction (WMD)?
Moret: Yes, DU is considered a WMD under two of the three categories defining WMD under US Federal Code. DU is also illegal under all international laws and under US military law as well. Depleted uranium is part of a global nuclear war on the population that is at least ten times more intense than nuclear bomb tests.
Back in 1943, depleted uranium was developed as part of the Manhattan project. In the infamous Groves memo, “Use of Radioactive Materials as a Military Weapon,” (http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/Groves-Memo-Manhattan30oct43.htm) Drs. Conant, Compton, and Urey describe the use of “dust and liquid disseminating munitions.” They go on:
As a gas warfare instrument the material would be ground into particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke and distributed by a ground-fired projectile, land vehicles, or aerial bombs. In this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The amount necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the material is extremely small. It has been estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a person's body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment for such a casualty.
Skeptics point out that the Groves memo was not referring to depleted uranium per se. Nevertheless, the title of Conant, Compton, and Urey’s work (“Use of Radioactive Materials as a Military Weapon”) speaks for itself. And there were no fission products in large enough quantities that could be used; depleted uranium was really the only material they had in quantities for munitions when that memo was written.
Sanborn: Why, given the fact that the military surely knows the harmful effects of DU, do they continue to use it in Iraq and elsewhere?
Moret: Because in World War II, the civilian population became the primary target of war. You’re looking at a depopulation campaign waged on citizens.
Just as Agent Orange was used to depopulate Vietnam as proposed in WWII by the Manhattan project, DU has been, and is being, used to wipe out civilians in war zones …and beyond.
Depleted uranium is the key to the increased disability rates of our soldiers. Look at the statistics: Veterans coming home from World War II had a 5% disability ratio, while Vietnam vets had a 10% disability ratio. Since 1991, the military has used DU in its wars in the Middle East, Yugoslavia, and Central Asia, and now the veteran disability ratio is well over 55%.
Sanborn: How does DU produce such a devastating effect?
Moret: Uranium has an affinity for the chemical makeup of DNA, and US patents exist that show Uranium is used by Monsanto and other GM corporations to genetically modify organisms.
The target organ of depleted uranium is the brain. The French Atomic Energy Agency made a detailed study of the effects of uranium on lab animals and found a tremendous effect on the brain.
The effects on our soldiers include higher rates of mental illness, when soldiers come home from Iraq and shoot a family member, for example (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-19-new-orleans-dismemberment_x.htm).
In 2002, three soldiers just back from Afghanistan shot their wives in Fort Bragg, North Carolina (http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=283595), and then killed themselves.
Sanborn: Your colleague, Dr. Arun Mitra, says other effects of DU exposure can be cancer, leukemia, chronic fatigue syndrome, joint and muscle pain, neurological and/or nerve damage, mood disturbances, auto-immuno-deficiencies, lung and kidney damage, vision problems, skin rupture, increase in miscarriages, maternal mortality, and genetic birth defects/deformation.
Moret: Yes.
Sanborn: How does the DU get inside the body?
Moret: Inhalation is the worst type of depleted uranium exposure. If the DU is inhaled, about 70% of it goes directly to the bloodstream. (If you only eat the DU, most of it will stick to the food and pass through your body.) Our troops and the Iraqi civilians are continual victims of DU as they inhale the particles every day.
The chemical and physical nature of the nanoparticles is what makes people sick. The particles enter human cells in forty-eight hours after exposure. The DU nanoparticles are insoluble, and once inside the body, very small amounts can be excreted.
Next Time: Part two of my interview with Leuren Moret
Leuren Moret has worked tirelessly for the cause of educating the world about DU and its devastating effects. She has a series of interviews, presentations, and films about radiation that can be purchased, and she is available for public speaking events. Ms. Moret has a series of 40 DVDs formatted for Public Access TV stations called "Global Nuclear Cover-up” that you may purchase by contacting her (see below). Buy several to educate your friends and family, and air them on your local public access TV stations. To support her work, please donate generously by contacting Ms. Moret by phone or email.
Call Leuren Moret: 510-845-3139
Email Leuren Moret: leurenmoret@yahoo.com
© 2008 Kathy Sanborn