https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtdmsZ4Csn8

(*mod edit to embed video)

YouTube

Shooting Depleted Uranium rounds - DUDS 7.62x51mm

Music - White Bat Audio, Vice, Slaves to the Grid, Odysseushttps://linktr.ee/Oxide_doeshttps://www.ade.pt/product/rf3-armor-plate/Buffman's test of that plat...

This guy is obviously not aware of what he is really doing. He sprays the environment with Uranium dust. Uranium is very toxic as a heavy metal and even more dangerous because of being an emitter of alpha rays. On the skin or inside the body, the long time damage will be very serious.  "Depleted" does not mean harmless.  

I shudder to think carrying an alpha emitter close to my body in an ammo pouch

Depleted is the important word. Stick a Geiger counter near a large pile of coal, crank up the sensitivity..... and find out you're getting irradiated.

In your mag pouch, not a problem. After it smacks a hard target, and you happen to breath some of the dust, that's when you are going to have problems.

That Geiger counter was quite active. And there is a difference between being a metre from a stack of coal and carrying an alpha source dirrectly on your body. Ask Professor Becquerel.

graylion said:

That Geiger counter was quite active. And there is a difference between being a metre from a stack of coal and carrying an alpha source dirrectly on your body. Ask Professor Becquerel.

Alpha radiation is stopped even by a piece of paper. As long as its outside of the body its not really a problem. Exposure to significant amounts will produce sympthoms like a sun burn. In fact the damage is comparable to what UV radiation does. Yes you can get skin cancer. But you also get that from prolonged sun exposure.
A Geiger counter is allways active. Even if it is laying in your living room it would tick... depending on setting. The trick with using such devices is setting the sensitivity. To get a good reading the device needs to tick. Actually to make the typical "Chernobyl" sound. This means you got the sensitivity right and you will now get a good reading. The sound is not used to indicate absolute intensity but the intensity related to the sensistify setting. Set to max sensitivity and it will go "Bikini Atol hot zone" in your living room. The meaningfull indication is the reading and only the reading.

BUT this doesn't mean DU is not dangerous. The dust of U (D or not) is extremly toxic. Inhaled it WILL lead to a heavy metal poisoning.

This is not controversial BTW. Even the nations using DU ammo acknowledge that and use extreme cause and safety measures when testing their ammo.

I had a bit of a look at tungsten and potential alternatives. 

https://www.angstromsciences.com/density-elements-chart

The only one that springs to mind is tantalum, other than that not much. And given the comparative density of U and Wo, I am not sure why U is being used at all? And Wo seems to also have negative environmental impact. Production of Wo may be ramp-uppable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten

graylion said:

And given the comparative density of U and Wo, I am not sure why U is being used at all?

Because DU is a byproduct of uranium enrichment and the US DOE was giving it for free to anyone willing to use it.

For example, Boeing 747 made before 1981 used between 692 lbs and 1059 lbs of DU as counterweight.

Density is only part of the equation.

Uranium has not only high density, it also has good physical properties for use in penetrators, plus the chemical effect of pyrophoricity.

Tantalum is dense, but is rare (read expensive), and I don't know if its physical properties are good dor ammunition use.

renatohm said:

Tantalum is dense, but is rare (read expensive), and I don't know if its physical properties are good dor ammunition use.

It's a good metal for the liner of a HEAT warhead, but so is gold... and both are just too expensive for that task.