Depleted uranium in Iraq

A 5-year-old Iraqi boy will return home Sunday after undergoing treatment for leukemia, which he is believed to have contracted from depleted uranium used in Iraq war (sic), the boy’s mother and Japanese supporters said Wednesday.

When Sean and I were in Japan, there were protestors making a big deal about the depleted uranium. Sean laughed and told me that “depleted” means “not radioactive”, and that there was no chance of anyone getting hurt by radiation.

Are the Japanese overly sensitive, understandably, due to what happened in World War II? Or is Sean wrong?