Depleted Uranium is not designed to vaporize. It has a boiling point (3818°C) more than twice that of lead (1740°C). It's atomic mass of 238 is considerably higher than Lead's 207.5. It packs quite the punch when put into a slug, but does not reach temperatures where it could vaporize. Certainly particulate matter would be ejected from the impact, though as with most slugs.

That said, what was done here is despicable and it is clear evidence of a war crime.

The DU projectiles are intended to fragment in ways that lead does not, as on impact parts of the projectile shear away and it "self-sharpens" when penetrating.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4004-safe-alternative...

The energy involved is also more than sufficient to hit that temperature. When a high-velocity shell impacts something it will deform and convert a lot of the kinetic energy to thermal.

The whole thing doesn't melt, but parts of it do, and the vehicle it hits gets absolutely thrashed.

These things cut through pretty much any armor like it's not even there. During the Iraq war they'd even hit tanks by firing through the tops of sand dunes, aiming using thermal imaging.

> It's atomic mass of 238 is considerably higher than Lead's 207.5.

Atomic mass has little to do with an element's boiling point.

But it has to do why it packs quite a punch. I agree it's worded awkwardly.

>Depleted Uranium is not designed to vaporize.

when an uranium projectile hits the armor, some of the uranium burns into uranium oxide, a dust of which gets dispersed all around. Big problem in Serbia too - in 1999 NATO used 30K+ units of uranium ammunition there.

I suppose whatever metal is used in a cumulative charge, a significant amount of it gets dispersed far and wide while a jet of the molten metal is piercing several inches of armor.

Copper, lead, whatever else, should contaminate all around as fine dust.