TWO Australian soldiers who served in the first Iraq war have tested positive to depleted uranium (DU) contamination ... 15 years later!

Iraq diggers 'contaminated with radiation' | By Rosemary Desmond | March 27, 2007 04:42pm | Article from: AAP

TWO Australian soldiers who served in the first Iraq war have tested positive to depleted uranium (DU) contamination despite assurances from the Federal Government they had not been exposed, an anti-nuclear group said today.

Any such admission from the Government would leave it open to millions of dollars in compensation, said Pauline Rigby, project co-ordinator for the group Depleted Uranium Silent Killer (DUSK).

Urine samples from each of the men, who served in different areas of Iraq, were sent last year for uranium isotope analysis at the JW Goethe University in Germany at a cost of $1200 each under the auspices of DUSK and the Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC) in Canada, Ms Rigby said.

The results, now being evaluated for publication next month in two scientific journals, showed both men had tested positive to depleted uranium contamination more than 15 years after their return from the first Gulf War.

Ms Rigby said depleted uranium was the toxic and radioactive waste from the nuclear enrichment process.

Denser and heavier than lead, it is used as a projectile to penetrate heavy bunkers and tanks. ...