THE first crisis facing incoming Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld may be triggered by the mounting concern over our use of nuclear-tipped weapons.

British, Italian, Belgian, French, Dutch, Czech, Spanish and Portuguese soldiers who served with NATO in Kosovo and Bosnia have been afflicted with "Balkans Syndrome" - a range of cancers, leukemia and mystery ailments said to be caused by the weapons.

Twenty soldiers have died, and dozens more are gravely ill.

"I have been reduced to nothing by this," says Kevin Rudland, 41, a former British soldier serving in Bosnia who has a mystery wasting disease that has turned him from a fit, active veteran to a near invalid.

"I don't know what my future holds."

A link between the mysterious illnesses and the American military's use of weapons containing depleted uranium has not been proved, but the issue has caused divisions within the NATO alliance.

Italy, Germany and Norway have called for a ban on the weapons, and Australia and Canada have expressed concern about a possible danger to their troops. Several other NATO countries have begun screening their soldiers for Balkans Syndrome.

No U.S. casualties have been reported with Balkans Syndrome, but tens of thousands of Gulf War vets have fallen victim to a similar range of diseases and symptoms known as Gulf War Syndrome.

Joyce Riley, a nurse, Gulf War veteran and former Air Force captain who founded the American Gulf War Veterans Association says it's only a matter of time before American victims of Balkans Syndrome emerge.

"About six months ago, I started getting phone calls from vets returning from the Balkans saying they had he same symptoms as the Gulf War vets - chronic fatigue, migraine headaches, depression," she said.

She added that she has no doubt NATO soldiers in the Balkans had been poisoned by depleted-uranium weapons just as U.S. soldiers were poisoned in the Gulf.

"The only science is being done by the Pentagon," she told The Post. "The Pentagon continues to insist that the Gulf War veterans aren't even sick, that they are only suffering from stress. But these are people who eat stress for breakfast."

THE Pentagon regards the depleted-uranium weapons as an essential part of the U.S. arsenal and is determined to keep them from becoming the focus of global protests. The weapons are among the factors that make America's conventional forces superior to all others.

"We have studied depleted uranium at considerable length over the years because of assertions that it might contribute to Gulf War illness," said Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon.

"But we have not been able to find any connection between exposure to depleted uranium on the one hand and the constellation of illnesses or symptoms on the other hand."

A State Department source said the controversy over depleted uranium is powerful anti-American propaganda for Iraq and other enemies and potential enemies of the United States.

"It's no accident that Iraq and Yugoslavia are among the countries calling for a ban on these weapons," the source said.

In 1999, U.S. A-10 Warthog aircraft fired about 31,000 uranium-tipped rounds in about 100 missions in 20 separate locations in Kosovo. A further 11,000 shells were fired in Bosnia in 1995, and almost a million were fired in Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War in 1991.

Depleted uranium is a form of low-level nuclear waste, a by-product of the manufacture of weapons-grade uranium.

It is very dense and extremely heavy, and turns into a searing fireball on impact, making it a highly effective weapon against tanks and armored vehicles. The uranium-tipped shells cut through tank armor the way regular bullets go through cardboard.

As both Iraqi and Serbian armored brigades have learned, it is almost impossible to survive an attack.

Depleted uranium is also used as armor plate in U.S. tanks and is a highly effective defense against conventional bullets and shells. It is less radioactive than uranium in its natural state.

But when it burns it becomes a very fine dust the consistency of flour. Doctors believe that if this dust is ingested or inhaled it can stay in the body and cause serious health problems.

SCIENTISTS are divided about the health risks of depleted uranium. Although the level of radioactivity is low, once lodged in the body the effect becomes cumulative.

"We are aware of the European concerns, and we are working closely with our allies," Bacon said.

"But, having said that, we do not believe that our troops, who have been using depleted uranium rounds, we do not believe that it has led to adverse health consequences."

The Pentagon has also denied an association between Gulf War Syndrome and the use of depleted uranium against Iraq.

Like the Pentagon and NATO, the United Nations is eager to quash suspicion about depleted-uranium weapons. A U.N. investigation is under way, and a report is expected in the spring.

Several NATO countries have sent their own team of experts to Kosovo battle zones to study levels of depleted uranium at the sites where groups of Serbian tanks were destroyed.

Bernard Kouchner, Kosovo's chief U.N. administrator, has played down the risks of depleted uranium at existing sites where children sometimes play among the wreckage of burned-out tanks and armored vehicles.

"Risk exists, but in my humble experience as a French health minister for 10 years, I think there is no serious risk."

At the same time, Italian biological- and chemical-warfare specialists examining the sites wear protective clothing and breathing apparatus, indicating that they at least felt precautions were necessary.

 The problem with DU is that it is an insoluble metal oxide, UO2, that has very long retention time in the lungs and the body, 10-15 years biological half-life.    Metal oxides and DU tend to bioconcentrate in the lymph nodes due to the action of white cells and macrophages on the cells damaged by DU, producing the highest toxic concentrations in lymph nodes. This immune system effect bioconcentrates the DU into the lymph nodes and system, where it impairs the immune protecting cells by giving them a toxic cells pool of metals and free radical products in the highest concentrations in the body.

 This missing data part of the DU health effect equation was intentionally omitted by places like Oak Ridge that recommended only urine testing in evaluation of DU toxic effects, while well knowing the other mechanism existed and wanted to hide that effect.    Hide the effects in order to get rid of its' DU problems by using it as AP ammo.