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Ukraine finds uranium in six more Russian drones. Their radiation readings ran up to 80 times background
(euromaidanpress.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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Global News
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So if this is just a "higher cancer levels years from now" kind of thing, why would Russia bother adding uranium? Isn't uranium expensive?
According to the article, it's depleted uranium.
Which is the leftover part that's not useful for making nukes with.
Still radioactive, it's basically hazardous waste... That weighs more than lead.
So you put it in munitions, and the same size projectile has more force, more stopping power. So you get more damage out of each round, plus convenient disposal of toxic waste, plus the radiological contamination around your targets, which either ties up more resources or gives the people you're shooting at cancer later. Or both! Or your own guys! veritable carnival of excitement
DU is far less radioactive than natural uranium.
EDIT:
According to the article, the uranium found gives off between 8 to 24 microsieverts (µSv) per hour.
Let's take some real world examples and compare:
A transatlantic flight typically exposes you to 0.08 millisieverts (mSv), or 80 µSv.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ionising-radiation-dose-comparisons/ionising-radiation-dose-comparisons
This means that you would need to stay next to the piece of Uranium for 3,5 - 10 hours to get the same dose as one transatlantic flight.
Is it bad? Sure! Is it a crisis? Nah.
But this is weird because drones arent projectiles in that sense. This is pretty much equivalent to putting very slightly radioactive lead ballast in a drone. All it is doing is slowing the drone down and reducing it's range. Very odd.
If they're not expecting the drones to return, this could be a 'salting the earth' tactic.
Its a terrible way of doing that though, if you wanted to do that there are far lighter materials (i.e. you can carry more) and you'd disperse it as a powder from altitude.
Like I said, its weird.
I'm not surprised it makes little sense. Remember this was/is a "Special military operation". Emphasis on Special...
They're putting it in the munitions on the drones
Ah, I misunderstood. Its a missile ON another missile (the one way drone) for shooting down other drones that try and take it down and that missile has a usually tungsten fragment warhead which is being replaced with DU.
Still weird but not completely baffling in that case.
The drone is a kamikaze drone. It delivers the warhead and destroys itself.
The uranium is armor piercing. That's why they use it.
As I said, drones arent projectiles in that sense.
A uranium (or tungsten, or even jacketed lead) dart hitting a target straight on with a sharp point while going multiple times the speed of sound is armour penetrating. Just putting a heavy metal in a subsonic aircraft carrying high explosive does nothing to help it penetrate armour and likely would impede it.
The R-60M missile uses a continuous rod warhead -- the DU is apparently included for "enhanced fragmentation".
The west has been using depleted uranium for years, Israel loves it
Thats just a side effect. The primary purpose of the uranium in the warhead is its armor piercing capabilities.
~~Enriched uranium is expensive. Uranium ore isn't~~
Edit: They did not use uranium ore
This is depleted uranium, not uranium ore. It's actual refined uranium, but not the right sort of uranium for use in fission reactions like nuclear power plants or bombs
Alright, I stand corrected. I admittedly did not read the article before commenting, so I did not know they used depleted uranium.
Although my point about uranium ore being cheap is still technically correct 🤓
But it is radioactive. But given the mess around Chernobyl, drop in a bucket.
For armor piercing capabilities. And no it's cheap because it's radioactive and isn't useful for very many things.
Lots of awful things about war. This is one in the endless list.