# Depleted uranium in your gun - now that's a good idea? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 5, 2001, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561 "2001-01-05T13:12:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561/21 "2001-01-07T06:26:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boris B \* > \*\*Okay, call me a goofball… \*\* OK, You’re a goofball… 😉 The mythilogical ‘cookies’ are emmiters of the various named types of radiation. Sorry, failed to provide sufficient context: Not everyone is a Nuc. ---
**Author:** ![Gav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d2c977/32.png) [@Gav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gav)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561/22 "2001-01-09T09:24:35Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by jti \* > I started a thread that’s pulling in people from other boards? I feel so proud, yet humble._\* Heh heh. When you draw a comic strip about Nuclear Engineers, you get a strange sort of cross-traffic and odd sense of devotion to answering weird questions. On my board, they’re talking about [what would happen if you blew up 1/4 of the moon](http://www.keenspot.com/KeenBoard/Forum3/HTML/000207.html), [what would happen if the earth lost its magnetic field](http://www.keenspot.com/KeenBoard/Forum3/HTML/000211.html), and [how all Nukees turn into alcoholics](http://www.keenspot.com/KeenBoard/Forum3/HTML/000207.html). I suspect these are not unrelated questions. I’d like a neutron cookie! But, I’m assuming that, like “chocolate chip” cookies, the whole cookie wouldn’t be of neutron star material, but rather be baked with small tasty morsels of neutronium interspersed within. 😃 Oh, and I think Baby Nucs should be called “Nukitos!” ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561/23 "2001-01-09T14:00:08Z")
Racing yachts use this stuff as well as airplanes apparently. If you’ve ever flown on a 747 you’ve been pretty close to the stuff. The text below is from [http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/Nwfaq/Nfaq0.html](http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/Nwfaq/Nfaq0.html) . The link above I got from a post made by Spiny Norman in an old thread on the same subject ( [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=27266](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=27266) ). > [@](#): > > The uses it has found have generally been related to its great density and comparatively low cost. It two most important uses are as a radiation shielding material, and as balance weights in aerospace applications such as aircraft control surfaces, each Boeing 747 contains 1500 kg of DU for this purpose. It is used extensively in oil-well drilling in the form of sinker bars, weights used to lower instruments into mud-filled well holes. It has also been used in high-performance gyroscope rotors, large inertial energy-storage flywheels, and as ballast in ballastic missile reentry vehicles and racing yachts. ---
**Author:** ![frolix8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@frolix8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frolix8)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561/24 "2001-01-09T14:24:18Z")
Here’s a good site about DU in the Gulf. [http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du/index.html](http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561/25 "2001-01-09T15:23:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeff\_42 \* > **Racing yachts use this stuff as well as airplanes apparently. If you’ve ever flown on a 747 you’ve been pretty close to the stuff.** Yeah, but I wasn’t breathing it. ---
**Author:** ![Sleepy\_Weasel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Sleepy\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleepy_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561/26 "2001-01-09T17:30:54Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Tranquilis \* > \*\* > Thus, if your U238 comes in big, happy chunks, well cool, then. If your U238 comes in microscopic fragments (such as one might get from a Hyper-Velocity Depleted Uranium Monolithic Penetrator striking armor), you then have a high risk of ingesting/inhaling a killer._\* Of course you’ve completely overlooked the possibility of those “big happy chunks” still being in the shape of a Hyper-Velocity Depleted Uranium Monolithic Penetrator. A board with a nail in it isn’t radioactive or necessarily toxic, but I don’t want to get hit in the head with one… ---
**Author:** ![epeepunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f19dbf/32.png) [@epeepunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epeepunk)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561/27 "2001-01-09T18:12:06Z")
I vacation with some very geeky and technically with-it people. One day we are sitting around on the porch one day, and there is a pause in the geeky conversation (something about radio-controlled racing boats or 3-d mathmatical models) and Larry says, trying to stump the geeks “So what do _you_ do with your depleted Uranium?” To which Ken replies: “I’ve been developing methods of testing gold bars to determine whether they are legitimate.” Sort of shut Larry up for a while. But you guys are the geekiest. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561/28 "2001-01-09T18:51:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gav \* > I’d like a neutron cookie! But, I’m assuming that, like “chocolate chip” cookies, the whole cookie wouldn’t be of neutron star material, but rather be baked with small tasty morsels of neutronium interspersed within. 😃 > > Oh, and I think Baby Nucs should be called “Nukitos!” > \*\* Even small bits of neutronium would be problematical… Can you say ‘multiple piercings’? Good, couse that’s what you get, as the little bits fall through your hand… How about a nice neutron-decay isotope in your Tollhouse cookies, instead? Nukitos? Nah, insuficienlty macho. Never get the sailors to go for it. **SleepyWeasel** : What, no Excedrin™ headaches? I’ve a paper weight on my desk, consisting of a 50cal armor-piercing bullet, stuck halfway through a chunk of M113 armor. _That’ll_ give you a headache: about 1.5" of tungston penetrator poking into the people-tank. ---
**Author:** ![Sleepy\_Weasel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Sleepy\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleepy_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561/29 "2001-01-09T19:08:38Z")
Sorry, closest I had to that was an old “hostage” silhouette target with a pair of holes in the badguy’s forehead from my first revolver. I later added the caption: “Excedrin Headache Number .44” ---
**Author:** ![Gav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d2c977/32.png) [@Gav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gav)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561/30 "2001-01-10T01:43:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tranquilis \* > \*\*Even small bits of neutronium would be problematical… Can you say ‘multiple piercings’? Good, couse that’s what you get, as the little bits fall through your hand… > > How about a nice neutron-decay isotope in your Tollhouse cookies, instead? > \*\* Oh details, details… 🙂 So little chunks of Plutonium/Beryllium? mmmmm MMMM! Just like mom used to centrifuge! > [@](#): > > \*\* > Nukitos? Nah, insuficienlty macho. Never get the sailors to go for it. > \*\* And yet they went for “Baby Nucs?” Geez, talk about a twisted sense of Nukismo! Looks like I need to learn to use the “Preview” button (I’m used to boards where you can edit your mistakes after submitting). I meant to say up there that three recent topics on my board are [what would happen if we destroyed 1/4 of the moon](http://www.keenspot.com/KeenBoard/Forum3/HTML/000207.html), [how many people would die if we eliminated the earth’s magnetic field](http://www.keenspot.com/KeenBoard/Forum3/HTML/000211.html), and then the last thing about “ **do all Nukees turn into alcoholics?** ” That’ll make that statement about “I don’t think these are unrelated questions” make more sense. I’ll hit “ **Preview** ” this time for sure… ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561/31 "2001-01-10T19:57:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gav \* > > So little chunks of Plutonium/Beryllium? mmmmm MMMM! Just like mom used to centrifuge! > > > [@](#): > > > > \*\* > > Nukitos? Nah, insuficienlty macho. Never get the sailors to go for it. > > \*\* > > And yet they went for “Baby Nucs?” Geez, talk about a twisted sense of Nukismo! Now we’re talking! Just keep things cool in the kitchen, you could make your cookie jars out of halfnium/boron. Maybe put a little Cs-137 in the popouri, just for variety’s sake? ‘Baby Nuc’ is pretty demeaning, which is why it’s ‘macho’: Only the most vigorous slams are permitted in the Nuclear Navy, thank you very much! **Blasphemy Alert!** Leave now if you’re easily offended! OK, I warned you… (Obscure Nuc refences abound) [Blaspheme] Rickover’s Prayer: Our Father, who ain’t in Heaven, Himen be Thy name. Thy Inspectors come, Thy will be done, in the Fleet as it is in NAVSEA 08. Give us this day our daily dose, and forgive us our Incidents, as we forgive the Drill Monitors. Lead us not to the failed ORSE, but deliver us from the SCRAM, for Thine is the Neutron, and the Flux, and the Power-to-Flow Ratio, forever and ever, Amen. [/Blaspheme] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depleted-uranium-in-your-gun-now-thats-a-good-idea/48561.md?page=1)