I'm an environmentalist*, so what I say next might come as a complete surprise, but I am absolutely disgusted by whiners who claim that DU is an environmental hazard.
Depleted uranium is useless for nuclear weapons, and its emitted radioactive particles are blocked by clothing and skin. The gamma radiation from depleted uranium is no more than what you'd expect from taking a vacation in the mountains.
The only hazard from DU is if you inhale powdered DU, or somehow get it embedded in your flesh. And since the chances of that happening outside of combat are next to nil, I really think that the hippies should find something better to do.
Just had to vent that. =)
* Technically, I'd be more accurately described as a "sustained developmentalist" -- I try to maintain a good balance between the ecology and economy. If we want to succeed and enjoy the luxuries of life, we can't ignore our economy, but if we want to survive, we can't ignore our ecology. Obviously, that's where a compromise comes in.
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Depleted uranium releases only alpha radiation, the least dangerous kind, and with an extremely long half-life. It's actually less radioactive than we are, because we carry a number of Carbon-14 atoms.
DU does break down into somewhat more hazardous materials, but only over a very long time, meaning that its by-products are insignificant. As the page I read observed, you'd be much safer living the rest of your life next to a lump of depleted uranium than moving to a house 100 feet higher above sea level. If any got into the general environment around you, heavy metal poisoning would be the only real concern and by the time it broke down into anything more dangerous it'd be washed out to sea by time. There, presumably, biological magnification and ordinary sedimentation processes would concentrate the stuff at the bottom of the ocean, where there's not a lot it can hurt.
Lummox JR