The danger of spent uranium munitions has nothing to do with radiation. The problem is with the chemical properties of uranium, and those never go away no matter what the half life of a particular isotope,
Um, I'm confused.
The whole point of half-life is that the material stops being uranium. Is it still
chemically Uranium after it has turned into the daughter products?
Although the U235 (the radioactive uranium isotope) does decay into byproducts, there are other uranium isotopes in fuel rods such as U238 (a non-radioactive uranium isotope). This U238 is the uranium that is used effectively in kinetic weapons because it has greater mass than lead. The primary danger to humans this has (other than the impact
) is heavy metal poisoning like lead, mercury, and other heavy metals.
