By a former RPO/RSO for an international aviation MRO · Updated July 2026
Depleted uranium counterweights balance elevators, rudders, and outboard ailerons on many legacy transport types. An intact, plated weight produces minimal external dose — which is exactly why shops mishandle them: they don't feel dangerous, and legally that feeling is irrelevant. DU is "source material" under 10 CFR 40, regulated regardless of dose rate.
The cadmium/nickel plating seals the uranium. Never grind, sand, drill, or torch a DU weight — uranium oxidation dust is the actual hazard, not the intact metal. A weight with damaged, blistered, or corroded plating gets bagged, tagged, and isolated for the RSO, not "cleaned up" on a bench grinder.
Manufactured articles of depleted uranium typically ship as UN2909 excepted packages: strong packaging, the UN number marked outside, surface reading under the excepted threshold, and the UN number on a transport document. Exports are different animals entirely — 10 CFR 110 screening plus the destination regulator, before the sale, in writing.
Return to the manufacturer, transfer to a verified specific licensee, or a licensed waste broker — with a transfer log entry closing the item's file. Here's why the fourth door doesn't exist: steel mills and scrap yards run portal radiation detectors. A DU weight in general scrap sets one off, the load gets traced, and the trace-back ends at a name. It's a reportable event, a federal violation, and the kind of story that follows a repair station forever.