Inquiry into missing depleted uranium in Ostend
Substance was found in waste container and scrap yard after being removed from decommissioned planes
Prosecutor awaits outcome
DU has a much lower proportion of the uranium isotope involved in nuclear reactions and is used for its extremely high density – 68% more dense than lead – for a variety of purposes in industry. One is to provide counterweights in aircraft, which may contain 400 to 1,500kg of the substance, encased in a protective container. However, it can be dangerous if involved in a fire, or if the aircraft should crash and breach the safety container. As a result, major aircraft manufacturers, among them Boeing, stopped using DU in the 1980s.
The two aircraft sent to Ostend for break-up were Boeing 747-200s dating from before that date (photo shows an Alitalia 747-200B landing at Rome in 1990). The FANC became involved when it was told that some of the DU had been handled as ordinary scrap. Part of the DU from the two planes – thought to be some 1,700kg – was found in a waste container at the airport, but some of the load remained missing. It later emerged that it had found its way to a scrap merchant’s yard. Since the casings had not been compromised, the FANC concludes no danger to the public was caused. The DU has since been separated from the scrap.
FANC will now investigate how the DU came to be treated in such a way, and how it arrived at the scrap merchant’s yard without being identified and with no warning given.
The prosecutor’s office in Kortrijk awaits the outcome of the FANC inquiry before deciding if legal steps are to be taken. Kortrijk is the office responsible for all environmental crimes in West Flanders.
“When that investigation is completed, we will study which infringements took place of the laws on waste materials and on ionising radiation,” a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said. “We will then take action in the event of offences.”
Photo courtesty of Aldo Bidini/Wikimedia Commons
About the author
