Airplanes?

Question

OK I'm watching Manmade on National Geographic right now. They are tearing apart a 747 and they are going to reuse some parts,recycling some etc........ but my question is this. The narrator said that the first thing they'll do is remove all the hazardous chemicals like the depleted uranium. What in the h**l is depleted uranium doing on/in an airplane?

Answer 1

Depleted uranium is extremely dense metal, so that a heavy piece of it is quite small by comparison to other metals.

So "depleted" is used to make counterweights (called "bobweights" for the control surfaces in numerous types of large airplanes.  They are heavy enough to counterbalance a large area of aluminum, but are compact enough to take up little space and to move through a relatively small range of moment when the control surface moves.

Depleted uranium is not particularly radioactive; it gives off less radiation than does a typical piece of cast iron drain pipe.  It is considered a hazardous material because it is toxic, as most heavy metals are.  Even though it is not very radioactive, it gives off enough radiation that it would not be a good idea to swallow a piece.

Answer 2

HA that question is just under you they use it as a BALLAST ...its put by the tail and APU.

Answer 3

I don't know of any depleted uranium that is on a B-747, unless it is in the instrumentation package.

Regards,

Dan

Answer 4

I can't imagine why there'd be depleted U on a passenger plane.  A mothballed A-10, maybe, but not a liner.

There may be mercury in some of the gauges, Lord knows what-all in the engines.  If the emergency oxygen generators are still aboard, they're essentially a big firework that gives off more oxygen than it consumes while burning.  Those would definitely be hazmats.

Answer 5

It is used as counterweights in older aircrafts like the B747. Its high density (19 tonnes/m³) makes it suitable for that job. The older B747s had between 0.4 to 1.5 tonnes of depleted uranium  for trimming the aircraft.

Newer aircrafts no longer take the risk of having such hazardous materials as part of design.

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Edit: Aviophage, DU is still radioactive and more dangerous than cast iron. However the weak alpha emission can be easily contained and so it makes it more safe to use it with proper shielding. Have no illusions with exposed DU.

Why you dont glow in the dark??? Maybe your B747 had good cadmium plated DU counterweights or you might have flown a 747 built in the late 80's when the usage of DU was discontinued.