"Depleted Uranium Used by Israel" in Bombing Outside Damascus, Syrian Military Official Alleges

From Jerusalem Post quoting Russia Today (5/6/2013):

'Israel used depleted uranium shells in Syria'

Israel used depleted uranium shells in the alleged strike in Syria on Sunday, a senior Syrian military source told Russia Today on Monday.

"When the explosion happened it felt like an earthquake, then a giant golden mushroom of fire appeared. This tells us that Israel used depleted uranium shells," the source said.

Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the production of enriched uranium for use in nuclear reactors. It is 2.5 times as dense as steel, which allows it to penetrate heavy protection. The material is known to be toxic, but not dangerously radioactive.

Syrian state television claimed the bombing occurred around a military research facility at Jamraya. The New York Times reported that the strike also targeted the bases of the elite Republican Guard and storehouses of long-range missiles.
The senior official speaking to RT downplayed the strategic importance of the weapons targeted in the attack, saying the military losses were "negligible" and that valuable equipment was removed from the site of attack after a previous strike.

"The target was just an ordinary weapons warehouse. The bombing is an ultimatum to us – it had no strategic motivation," he was quoted by RT as saying.

A Western intelligence source told Reuters the attack targeted "stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah," while a senior Hezbollah source denied to Kuwaiti daily Alrai on Monday that the weapons targeted belonged to his organization.

(Full article at the link)

It is interesting, almost amusing, that the Israeli newspaper quotes all these news sources in describing the attacks allegedly by Israel. The Israeli government remains silent on the attacks.

Meanwhile, contradicting what the US administration has been saying (and still saying, as of Monday), the UN investigators say it may have been the rebel forces in Syria that used sarin gas, not the Assad regime.

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Depleted Uranium at Mitsui Chemicals Complex in Yamaguchi Prefecture Is Safe, According to Mitsui Chemicals, Nippon TV

Mitsui Chemicals issued the statement on April 22 that had some information about the depleted uranium catalyst stored at its petrochemical complex in Iwakuni City, Yamaguchi Prefecture:

また、工場構内の倉庫で放射性物質を含む廃触媒を関係法令に基づき厳重に保管しておりますが、当該倉庫は発災場所から約５００ｍ離れており、保管容器に異常なく、放射線量測定値は事故前と変化ありません。

Also, we store the spent catalysts that contain radioactive materials in the warehouse inside the plant complex in strict adherence to the related laws and regulations. The warehouse is about 500 meters away from where the accident started. The containers are intact, and the current levels of radiation is the same as before the accident.

Nippon Television News has a bit more details about the containers:

また工場内では放射性物質を含む廃触媒がステンレス製の２重のドラム缶で倉庫に保管されていた。爆発で倉庫のガラスが割れたが周囲の測定で異常はみられなかったという。

The spent catalysts containing radioactive materials were stored in the warehouse in double-walled containers made of stainless steel. Explosions at the complex broke window glass of the warehouse, but there was no unusual measurement in the vicinity of the warehouse.

Depleted uranium was used as catalysts in 1960s and 1970s.

Hardly anyone wants to believe the official (government, the guilty company, mass media) accounts these days, but the official accounts continue to say there has been no leak of toxic chemicals or depleted uranium.

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Update on Petrochemical Complex Fire: 2nd Explosion in the Morning of April 22, Depleted Uranium Containers Safe

UPDATE: FNN News says there are about 3,400 containers of depleted uranium at the plant, but according to Mitsui Chemical there is no damage to the containers.

==========================================

NHK has a fixed camera nearby (5 kilometers from the plant). The second explosion took place at 8AM on April 22. (My original post on the accident is here.)

You can go to NHK to view the video clip.

So far, 1 worker is dead, 11 workers including workers at the adjacent plant injured, with two severely injured. 5 residents living nearby were injured by broken glass.

8AM explosion captured by the NHK camera:

Firefighting continues at the plant, (which looks more like Fukushima I Nuke Plant...):

No definite word yet on the depleted uranium that was stored at the plant, or on the low-level radioactive waste.

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"Now They Tell Us" Series: Depleted Uranium Storage Facility Next to Cosmo Oil Refinary In Chiba Burned after Earthquake Hit on March 11

The facility belongs to Chisso Petrochemical, and it contained 765 kilograms of depleted uranium at 0.3% concentration. It caught fire when the adjacent Cosmo Oil LPG tank caught fire and exploded. Not a problem, the Chiba government now says, and Chisso hasn't said anything about the facility.

There was a "baseless rumor"(link in Japanese) that circulated on the Internet on March 12 that said "Harmful substance will come down with the rain after the Cosmo Oil fire. Do not expose your skin." Cosmo Oil and the government dismissed the rumor vehemently. Maybe the "baseless rumor" was not about Cosmo Oil's tank but about Chisso's depleted uranium...

From Chiba Nippo (7/1/2011):

劣化ウラン保管施設も延焼
コスモ石油のガスタンク火災で

Depleted Uranium Storage Facility Also Burned when Cosmo Oil's Gas Tank Exploded

　６月千葉県議会は３０日、総務防災と総合企画水道の２常任委員会が開かれた。総務防災では、東日本大震災で発生したコスモ石油千葉製油所（市原市）の液化石油ガス（ＬＰＧ）タンク火災・爆発に伴い、隣接する劣化ウラン保管施設も延焼していたことが明らかになった。放射性物質の漏えいはなかったとしている。

On June 30 Chiba Prefectural Assembly held meetings of 2 standing committees, "general affairs and disaster countermeasures" and "planning and water". In the general affairs and disaster countermeasures committee, it was revealed that the LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) tank fire and explosion at Cosmo Oil Refinery in Ichihara City, Chiba also burned the adjacent depleted uranium storage facility. There was no leak of radioactive materials, according to the committee.

　【総務防災】県消防課は、同製油所のガスタンクの火災・爆発事故で、隣接するチッソ石油化学の劣化ウラン保管倉庫の屋根が焼け落ちていたことを明らかにした。

The Chiba prefectural fire department disclosed that the depleted uranium storage facility's roof was burned down because of the fire and explosion of the LPG tank at Cosmo Oil. The depleted uranium storage facility belongs to Chisso Petrochemical [subsidiary of Chisso Corporation].

　同課によると、同倉庫は「核燃料使用事業所」として国の許可を受け、ガス製造用の触媒として使われる劣化ウラン７６５キログラムが保管されており、放射性物質が０・３％含まれていた。

According to the fire department, the storage facility is licensed by the national government as "nuclear fuel usage location", and had 765 kilograms of depleted uranium that contained 0.3% of radioactive material [uranium]. The depleted uranium is used as catalyst for gas production.

Looking at Chisso's press releases, there is no mention of the depleted uranium storage facility at this plant location. The explosion and fire at Cosmo Oil Refinery was finally put out on March 21, at which point Chisso was able to go inside their plant to assess the fire damage.

Ichihara City is on the west side of Chiba Prefecture, facing the Tokyo Bay, and there are many industrial plants and petrochemical facilities on the reclaimed land on the Tokyo Bay. Chisso Petrochemical is marked with a Yellow balloon with a dot:

View Tokyo bay in a larger map
A minor detail, but Chisso Petrochemical is NOT adjacent to Cosmo Oil, by the way. There is Maruzen Oil in between the two. Hmmm. How would Chisso's facility catch fire when Maruzen's did not?

Here are some video of Cosmo Oil explosion on March 11, in case you missed:
http://youtu.be/TZqhc-ysHzM (Asahi Shinbun footage)
http://youtu.be/x3Hy2LV_lLo (explosion that darkens the sky after 1:40 into the video)

By the way, Chisso is the same company that caused extensive mercury poisoning in the Minamata Bay in Kyushu by dumping methylmercury in the wastewater from the company's chemical plant, and the company has been kept "alive" so that it makes profit to pay compensations to the victims. TEPCO's likely future.

(By the way, turning gossipy, Japan's crown princess is the granddaughter of the Chisso president who fought and fought the "allegation" in the 1960s that his company's plant caused mercury poisoning.)

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Alex Jones Interviews Dr. Doug Rokke on Depleted Uranium

Another proof that when a state wages a war, it is more against its own than against another state.

Dr. Rokke "served as a member of the 3rd U.S. Army Medical Command's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical response and special operations team and with the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Assessment team during Gulf War 1. He was the U.S. Army's Depleted Uranium Project director from 1994 - 1995 and developed congressionally mandated education and training materials and wrote U.S. Army Regulation 700-48, the U.S. Army PAM 700-48, and the U.S. Army's common task for DU incidents." (from Alex Jones Show)

Here's the interview in three parts:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

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