Policy paper

Depleted uranium (DU) munitions

The Ministry of Defence's policy on using depleted uranium in weapons and how we assess and monitor any health and environmental risk.

• From: Ministry of Defence
• Published: 8 July 2013

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Documents

Depleted uranium

PDF, 47.1 KB, 5 pages

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Details

An explanation of why the Ministry of Defence (MOD) believe the use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions is lawful, why they reject claims that the use of DU munitions presents severe health and environmental risks and why we oppose calls to ban these munitions. The outcome and relevance of the many health and environmental studies which underpin the MOD view, the role of battlefield clearance in further reducing the already low risks from DU contamination and some common misconceptions are described.

Related information

• Depleted Uranium reports on the government UK Web archive
• Depleted Uranium: environmental surveys of Kirkcudbright Training Area on the government UK Web archive
• Gulf Veterans Illnesses

Published 8 July 2013