The Committee for National Solidarity
Tolstojeva 34, Belgrade, YU
(UNEP News Release,For information
only-Not an official record)
GENEVA, 16 January 2001 - Early laboratory
results confirm that
pieces of DU penetrators found at sites targeted by
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 (DU)
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 percent 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.
The results of the tests will be ready
in early March 2001, when
UNEP will publish a full report of its findings.
Note to journalists: For more information, please contact UNEP
Spokesperson Mr. Tore Brevik at +254-2-623292 or
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; the UNEP Depleted
Uranium Assessment
Team Chairman Mr. Pekka Haavisto at +358-40-588 4720 or
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; or
UNEP press officer Mr. Michael
Williams at +41-22-9178242, +41-79-409-1528
or
[EMAIL PROTECTED]. See
also http://balkans.unep.ch.
UNEP
News Release 01/04
--------------------------------------------
Robert
Bisset
Office of the Spokesman/Director
Communications and Public
information
UNEP,
P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel.
+254-2-623084, Fax. +254-2-623692
[EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.unep.org
__________________________________________________________________________
Mrs Jela Jovanovic, art historian
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