UNEP/81
16
January 2001
GENEVA, 16 January (UNEP) -– Early laboratory results confirm that
pieces of depleted uranium (DU) penetrators found at sites targeted by the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) during the 1999 Kosovo conflict contain Uranium 236,
the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported here today.
Scientists working for the UNEP Depleted Uranium Assessment Group are
analysing the contents of the seven penetrators –- ammunition tips made out of
depleted uranium -– found during a UNEP field mission to Kosovo in November
2000.
Isotope analyses to determine the types of uranium present show that
0.0028 per cent
of the uranium in the penetrators is in the form of isotope U-236. The presence of U-236 indicates that part of
the DU came from reprocessed uranium.
This information was provided by one of the five laboratories being used
by UNEP for its DU assessment work.
According to the laboratory, the content of U-236 in the depleted
uranium is so small that the radiotoxicity is not changed compared to DU
without U–236. However, the final
assessment by UNEP will be made only once results from all laboratories are available.
“This is first laboratory result based on our field work”, said UNEP
Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. “We
have asked the World Health Organization and all of our other partners for
their assessments of this finding while we continue with the scientific
analysis.”
UNEP’s Kosovo field mission team, consisting of 14 experts from several
countries, collected soil, water, and vegetation samples, conducted smear tests
on buildings and destroyed army vehicles, and found penetrators and sabots. Remnants of DU ammunition were found at
eight of the 11 sites that were visited.
The 340 samples collected are now being analysed for both toxicity and
radioactivity in five European laboratories in an effort to determine whether
the use of DU during the Balkans conflict may pose any risks to human health or
the environment.
(more)
- 2 - Press Release UNEP/81
16
January 2001
The results of the tests will be ready in early March, when UNEP will
publish a full report of its findings.
Note to journalists: For more
information, please contact UNEP Spokesperson Tore Brevik at +254-2-623292 or
[email protected]; the UNEP Depleted Uranium Assessment Team Chairman Pekka
Haavisto at +358-40-588 4720 or [email protected]; or UNEP press
officer Michael Williams at +41-22-9178242, +41-79-409-1528 or
[email protected]. See also
https://balkans.unep.ch.
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