Neat Trick

In a newspaper story about a French bloke who stuffed a World War I artillery shell up his bum and needed hospital treatment to have it removed, we were told that bomb disposal experts were called to ‘diffuse’ the shell.
    Does that mean the hospital staff made the 8" long by 1" diameter shell just disappear into the environment rather than defusing it?
    The hospital’s severely dodgy customer was later interviewed by the police as a preliminary to being charged with bumming around with a bomb.