virmod

I do not understand your ultimate point. Going by your line of reasoning, the utilization of nerve gas on the frontlines, chemical weapons and maybe even low-yield nuclear weapons should not be considered a big deal since they are all 'highly-localized' anyways, right?

It might all be 'highly-localized', but DU is there to stay in the ground virtually forever, until it is blow elsewhere by the wind of carried underground by rain, both of which are equally undesirable outcomes.

Nuclear engineer here. UF6 is solid at ambient temperature and pressure, though it is extremely voltatile and can be turned into a gas with ease. It is mainly used as an intermediary Uranium compound which has physical properties (first and foremost, being turned easily into a gas) that are very conducive to it enrichment. Once it is enriched though, it is turned through various other chemical processes into either various forms of ceramics (e.g. Uranium Oxides) or metal (e.g. pure Uranium metal). DU rounds are made of purely metallic Uranium and are, of course, stored that way too. There is no UF6 involved in the storage of DU rounds since... the rounds have already been fabricated out of metallic (depleted) Uranium.

How about people on the receiving end? It is absolutely no secret that the use of DU ammo in Kosovo by NATO forces in 1999 led to an increase in the cancer rates of the civilian population, as well as some military units (most notably the Italian ones). It is no wonder either, DU is pyrophoric (i.e., burns on impact, spreading DU dust in the impact's environs) and should banned just as (even more than) cluster bombs and mines.