Naomi H. Harley is an authority on radiation physics. She earned her Ph.D. in radiological physics at New York University where she is currently a research professor at the University's School of Medicine, Department of Environmental Medicine. She has written six chapters in books dealing with radiation or toxicology and holds three patents for radiation measurement devices. I've always been interested particularly in the health effects of radioactivity. Harley says people who talk about the dangers of depleted uranium often don't realize how little its use affects the environment.
All soil contains uranium.
In normal soil, it's not unusual to find a ton of natural uranium per square kilometer. She agrees that in a battle zone much of the depleted uranium ammunition, which strikes hard targets such as tanks, will be dispersed in fine aerosol particles and settle over the ground. This was certainly true in the Gulf War. There were follow up measurements made of soil in the battle areas and you really could not distinguish what's there normally from what was put there by the weapons. In other words, she says these fine particles are mixed in with existing uranium without measurably increasing the amount present.