this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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Global News

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Ukraine finds uranium in six more Russian drones. Their radiation readings ran up to 80 times background (euromaidanpress.com)
submitted 5 days ago by supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz to c/globalnews@lemmy.zip
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[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Damaged or burned munitions pose the greatest danger, as they may release radioactive dust hazardous to people and the environment. A gamma reading of 24 microsieverts per hour is roughly 80 times background and enough to flag debris as hazardous to anyone in prolonged contact, though a single brief exposure at that level is far below the dose that causes acute harm.

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?

[–] DempstersBox@lemmy.world 84 points 5 days ago (3 children)

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

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

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.

[–] Womble@piefed.world 17 points 5 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago (1 children)

If they're not expecting the drones to return, this could be a 'salting the earth' tactic.

[–] Womble@piefed.world 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] EatMyPixelDust@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 5 days ago

I'm not surprised it makes little sense. Remember this was/is a "Special military operation". Emphasis on Special...

[–] DempstersBox@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They're putting it in the munitions on the drones

[–] Womble@piefed.world 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

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.

[–] felixthecat@fedia.io 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The drone is a kamikaze drone. It delivers the warhead and destroys itself.

The uranium is armor piercing. That's why they use it.

[–] Womble@piefed.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] oatscoop@midwest.social 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The R-60M missile uses a continuous rod warhead -- the DU is apparently included for "enhanced fragmentation".

[–] Iusedtobeanalien@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

The west has been using depleted uranium for years, Israel loves it

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 6 points 4 days ago

Thats just a side effect. The primary purpose of the uranium in the warhead is its armor piercing capabilities.

[–] Anivia@feddit.org 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

~~Enriched uranium is expensive. Uranium ore isn't~~

Edit: They did not use uranium ore

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 16 points 5 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] Anivia@feddit.org 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

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 🤓

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

But it is radioactive. But given the mess around Chernobyl, drop in a bucket.

[–] felixthecat@fedia.io 1 points 4 days ago

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.

[–] felixthecat@fedia.io 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Lots of people didn't read the article...lots of bad replies here.

"Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) documented six more cases of Russian forces using munitions with uranium components against Ukraine, found in Geran-2 attack drones that struck Chernihiv Oblast between April and June 2026.

... Russia mounts old Soviet R-60 air-to-air missiles on the Geran-2 drones, and the uranium sits in those missiles' warheads. The purpose is the arms race in the sky: the R-60 turns a strike drone into an air-to-air weapon meant to kill the Ukrainian aircraft and helicopters that intercept incoming drone swarms. What the SBU is now documenting is that the radioactive warhead configuration is not a one-off but a recurring feature of the strikes."

The uranium is in the warhead for armor piercing capabilities. Everything hit by it then becomes radioactive. And because of the setup, the drone parts that remain especially are radioactive because it is a kamikaze attack. The uranium explodes out in all directions.

[–] MML@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago

It's depleted uranium, the US used things like these in the middle east, maybe not launched from a drone but same concept.

[–] Pollo_Jack@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Make Moscow radioactive till this stops.

[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Depleted uranium warheads for extra spicy impacts.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 21 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Depleted uranium is far less radioactive than natural uranium, one of it's uses is in fact as radiation shielding....

That being said, uranium in and of itself is toxic to humans.

Depleted uranium, DU, is used in projectiles due to it's ability to punch through armor, and funny enough, it is also used as armor plating in some tanks.

As a projectile DU has the advantage of being self sharpening and flammable, so if I understand it correctly, when a DU projectile hits an armor plate the energy of the impact causes the DU to self sharpen, increasing the armor penetration capabilities of the projectile, and once it has penetrated, the DU projectile has broken up into many small sharp needles and the added heat of that transformation causes it to catch on fire.

I really doubt that Russia is using DU as a direct ammunition in their drones, it seems more resonable to think that the use of DU is to balance the drone, due to the high density of the material it would take up little space in the drone.

[–] felixthecat@fedia.io 1 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Read the article, it says they're using it in warheads. The person you're replying to is correct.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The article spoke about how harmful the radiation of the DU is, that is objectively false.

Now, granted, it is possible that they use DU as shorthand for something else, or are referring to the toxic part of the uranium, but as it stands, the radiation is not the issue

[–] felixthecat@fedia.io -4 points 3 days ago

Nope, wrong. There wouldn't be a story if it wasn't radioactive. Go re-read the article.

[–] impairedimperator@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Warheads in the air to air missiles that drones use for defense, not the drone warheads themselves.

[–] felixthecat@fedia.io 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They're kamikaze drones. The drone is sacrificing itself with the payload.

[–] impairedimperator@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

...and the DU is not in the payload, it is in the warhead of an air-to-air missile that some drones carry.

[–] felixthecat@fedia.io 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You dont know what the word payload means.

Payload - the load carried by a vehicle exclusive of what is necessary for its operation especially : the load carried by an aircraft or spacecraft consisting of people or things (such as passengers or instruments) necessary to the purpose of the flight … rockets carrying … a payload of Starlink satellites. —Rick Neale Their objective was to size the airplane according to its intended payload. —Clive Irving

In this case the Payload is the warhead. It is a kamikaze drone.

[–] impairedimperator@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago

...and the DU is not in the kamikaze drone's warhead. It is in a different warhead, in a missile, strapped to the side of the drone.

[–] Lewo@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I assume it's for fragmentation to hit the planes that are often employed to hunt down the drones. Drone swarms already include duds to distract the defenses, then they started adding duds with tiny explosive charges, then it became apparent that planes getting hit by the explosions of drones they were shooting down was a significant threat, so I guess they added shrapnel to make it more likely to happen. Depleted uranium isn't that unusual in warfare, it's mostly used for its density.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 days ago

US dumped 2,200 tonnes of radioactive uranium rounds in Iraq.