These 30mm munitions (jackets and penetrators) are made with depleted uranium
First discovered in the 18th century, uranium is an element found everywhere on earth, but mainly in trace quantities. In 1938, German physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann showed that uranium could be split or fissioned into parts to yield energy. Uranium is the principal fuel for nuclear reactors and the main raw material for nuclear weapons.
Natural uranium consists of three isotopes: uranium-238, uranium-235, and uranium-234. Uranium isotopes are radioactive. The nuclei of radioactive elements are unstable, meaning they are transformed into other elements, typically by emitting particles (and sometimes by absorbing particles). This process, known as radioactive decay, generally results in the emission of alpha or beta particles from the nucleus. It is often also accompanied by emission of gamma radiation, which is electromagnetic radiation, like X-rays. These three kinds of radiation have very different properties in some respects but are all ionizing radiation. Each is energetic enough to break chemical bonds, thereby possessing the ability to damage or destroy living cells.
