18 January 2001 Trace Amounts of U-236 Reported in Depleted Uranium Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said "extremely small amounts" of Uranium 236 (U-236) have been found in new European laboratory analysis of depleted uranium. In answer to a reporter's question about reports that U-236 has been found in the bodies of some military veterans, the spokesman said the labs "found tiny elements of U-236, which is not normally in depleted uranium." The Defense Department is "looking further as to whether these were accurate lab studies," Bacon said. "We're not disputing them; we're just looking into them, and we're looking into how this could have happened." Stray elements that have been found, he said, include plutonium, neptunium and americium in minute amounts. The spokesman noted that the United Nations Environmental Program issued a statement January 17 that the amount of radio toxicity of the depleted uranium was not changed by the discovery of the trace U-236. This was the final Pentagon briefing of the Clinton Administration and the last to be conducted by Bacon. He will begin a new life in the private sector as chief executive officer of Refugees International. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of the International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) Return to the Washington File