How can they unscrew the fuse from a WW2 bomb that was rotting under the ground or in water for 80 years, when you may have to use brutal force, heat, etc to remove bolts from a 10-year-old car (and the bolt will snap anyway)?

Question

I would expect that you wouldn’t be able to loosen anything on an old, rusty bomb, especially that it is so unstable and can go off anytime.

In: 1985

Answer 1

I know nothing about bomb disposal specifically and some folks below seem to have that covered but speaking very broadly about threaded fittings: it can depend heavily on the materials involved and stuff like how tightly it was screwed in in the first place. if you have a steel bolt in a steel hole both sides can rust and all the rust fuses together. in that case you can snap the head off before the bolt will turn. if you have aluminum threads screwed into steal they never fuse. it might be crunchy but you should still be able to get them apart. in the case of bomb fuses, maybe they’re different materials that don’t fuse as badly as steel on steel?