1. The specific radioactivity of depleted uranium is 40% lower than that for natural uranium. External exposure to γ radiation emitted from depleted uranium projectiles is negligible.
2. As a result of military use of depleted uranium ammunition during the 1991 Gulf War about 300 tons of DU were dropped in the aircraft rounds and tank-fired shells in Kuwait and southern Iraq over an area about 20,000 km2.
3. It has been estimated that a large fraction of DU bullets (∼90%) fired from an aircraft miss their intended targets. The majority of these projectiles are still buried at various levels in the ground.
4. Slowly reacting metallic uranium deposited in the humid ground, in long-term perspective (over several hundred years) can cause the increase of its concentration in some local wells (underground water), but only in exceptional cases can it exceed the US EPA limit of 30 μg dm−3.
5. Comprehensive environmental radioactivity measurements in Kuwait in the years 1992–1994 do not confirm significant contamination of depleted uranium over the territory of this country, which may lead to exceeding the current hygiene or safety standards.
6. Because of the excellent penetrating properties of DU ammunition, it seems hardly possible that countries which have armies equipped with it would give up their use after the protests of pro-ecological organisations. However, such protests caused a temporary ban on uranium projectile ground tests in the United Kingdom
(BBC, 2001).