Robots To Clear the Baltic Seafloor of WW-II Mines 286
An anonymous reader writes "A Russian company is building a massive natural gas pipeline that will run across the Baltic Sea floor. But first, they must clear some of the 150,000 unexploded bombs sitting at the bottom of the sea, left there by the Russian and German armies in the 1940s. About 70 of these mines, each filled with 300 kg of explosive charge, sit in the pipeline's path, mostly in its northern section just south of Finland. And so the company contracted to remove the mines is bringing in robots to do the dirty work. Here's how it will work: A research ship deploys the robot to the seabed, where it identifies the exact location of the explosive. After sounding a warning to surrounding ship traffic, scaring fish away using a small explosive, and then emitting a 'seal screamer' of high intensity noises designed to make the area around the blast quite uncomfortable for marine mammals, Bactec's engineers erupt a 5 kg blast, forcing the mine to detonate. This process ensures the safety of humans plus any animals living in the surrounding environment. The operation concludes with the robot being redeployed to clear up the scrap of the now-destroyed bomb."
Re:Save everything that can move away fast enough? (Score:2, Interesting)
Only a Chinaman would know.
Re:Mines that old really still dangerous? (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, it is quite possible that the explosive agent in a fair few of these mines is Amatol. Because that stuff was hygroscopic, it was often given some sort of waterproof coating even if it was intended for land use, just so that it wouldn't go dud in storage. A basic coating of Bitumen could stand against seawater for quite a while, preserving the lump of possibly touchy explosive material even if the mine casing has been breached. Some of the period contact detonators, constructed largely of glass and lead, might also surive surprisingly well...
Origin of Mines? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Mines that old really still dangerous? (Score:5, Interesting)
Or more explicitly, would *you* personally (the original poster) take the chance?
It is easier to wave away risk when someone else is taking it.
I was present when a plumber was fixing a small, on demand water heater wired directly to the mains so you could not unplug it. (probably a building code violation) I switched off power to the bathroom at the breaker box and told him it was off. The plumber asked: "Are you sure it's off?", I said yes, he said "Then you wont have a problem touching those terminals yourself."
At that point I grabbed my meter and verified it was off and then shorted the terminals with a screw driver to be doubly sure.
Re:Save everything that can move away fast enough? (Score:3, Interesting)
We've been using fertilizer as explosives for a long time, this really could help the plants.
Sounds good in theory, and as for practice, I have never seen quite as much greenery as the explosives range at the army base in Huntsville, at least as of the early 90s. Apparently nitrates and phosphorous are good for plants, who would have guessed? Also the equivalent of soil aeration could help on the ocean floor.
Sooo, paying for WWII cleanup...Who gets the bill? (Score:2, Interesting)
Interesting how we're still expending money and effort to clean up previous wars. Due to the global nature of this particular war, really makes me wonder who should be footing the bill for cleanup like this, especially in "international" waterways.
Re:Mines that old really still dangerous? (Score:5, Interesting)
The Vasa [wikipedia.org] warship was preserved in the brackish waters a little way from Stockholm for over three hundred years. How long something lasts at the bottom of the sea depends on the composition of the water (oxygen, salt, etc) and other factors.
(If you visit Stockholm make sure you see the ship, it's amazing.)
Re:Save everything that can move away fast enough? (Score:1, Interesting)
Just because theres nothing you enjoy seeing down there doesnt mean its bare and desolate. Even in places where there are no coral reefs, the ocean bottom is rich in uncharismatic invertebrates, the exact type that orgs like WWF and the like dont care about because theyre not fluffy, colorful or cute. Not to mention the poorly studied microbial communities that exist in such places and that some recent studies show those communities to be filled with organisms never before described.
yeah, nothing wrong with bombing the Baltic Sea... hell, why not just drop a few nukes down there and speed things up a bit?
Re:What about the chemical weapons dumped? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Save everything that can move away fast enough? (Score:5, Interesting)
"Unexploded ordinance is just nasty stuff that may or may not still be viable - the only effective way to make it safe is to let all the boom out of it."
For one of my projects, I was involved in unmanned aircraft activities at Fort Riley, KS, using an old weapons test range. Downrange was a tree line that we were warned to stay away from, and there were "UXO" signs around them. Apparently, trees had grown *around* unexploded ordnance, and that those trees were known to spontaneously explode. It was too dangerous to go out there, and they couldn't just bomb the land on base, so the Army just left that bunch of trees alone.
Re:Mines that old really still dangerous? (Score:5, Interesting)
Hell, a couple of years ago, a guy was killed by a *(US) Civil War* shell [roanoke.com]. And that was one that not only had sat either in water or the Virginia mud for nearly 150 years, it had been flushed with water to try to make it inert.
Re:Mines that old really still dangerous? (Score:1, Interesting)
yeah, especially in the eastern part of Berlin they found and still find lots of old bombs because of the intense rebuilding after the reunion. My estimation of the radio messages we got it's like 5 times a year that a part of Berlin is evacuated because they found another bomb and fear it's going BOOM.
Re:Sooo, paying for WWII cleanup...Who gets the bi (Score:3, Interesting)
Obviously the Germans should be forced to pay war reparations...
Re:Will the mines explore (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Mines that old really still dangerous? (Score:3, Interesting)
wikipedia also says Solubility in water, 0.13 g/L (20 C). I knew a guy that had worked in a munitions plant, he said it was a big problem, TNT dust disolving in mop water, getting into the sewers and concentrating when the sewer dried out.