clipped from: www.motherearth.org   

The Nuclear Chain

Enrichment and depleted uranium
Before the uranium can be used in the nuclear power plant or in nuclear reactors, it has to be enriched, which means that the small amount of the isotope Uranium 235 in the rock has to be increased.
in this form of enrichment, the uranium gains military value: depending on the enrichment the uranium can then be used as fuel for power, research or military reactors, or for nuclear weapons.

The leftover material is composed mostly of the uranium 238 isotope, is known as depleted uranium (DU). This waste, which is produced in large quantities by the enrichment process, is nowadays used for military purposes, as it is a very dense material. The US-army used DU-ammunition and armory during the Gulf War. It it quite likely that varporized and burnt DU contributed to the mysterious "Gulf War Syndrome". The effects on the civilian population in the areas contiminated by DU are very similar to those that result from nuclear fallout.