300,000 tons of ammunition rotten in the Baltic sea, harm marine animals and endanger people. Experts have studied how dangerous is the Contamination and what should be done with them.
Watch the Video
05:15
Now live
05:15 Min.
Share
Germany: danger under the water
Send
google+
Tumblr
VZ
Mr. Wong
Newsvine
Digg
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/1G7Bm
Germany: danger under the water
Out of sight, out of mind: After the two world tons of ammunition were sunk in wars simply in the Baltic sea. Even not far from the coast. Back then, you had no thoughts that this could be legacies, sooner or later, to the dangerous threat.
Alone in the German waters, the amount of conventional munitions and chemical warfare agents is estimated to be 300,000 tons. The ammunition dumping area Kolberger Heide, a restricted area, around 35,000 tons of sea mines and torpedoes in a maximum of twelve meters of water depth and in sight of the beach are located directly in front of the gates of Kiel.
Decision-making AIDS for politics and authorities
What should happen with the Legacy? You can be there, and that toxic substances to leak slowly, or it carries the ammunition and the risk that the porous metal body, shatter or even explode?
These questions need to be addressed quickly, especially when in the areas of, for example, a submarine cable or a Pipeline is buried or a wind Park is to be built.
Controlled demolition of world war II mines in the Baltic sea off Estonia
Scientists have developed in the international research project DAIMON (Decision Aid for Marine Munitions) decision-making AIDS and of the joint final conference of the Thünen and Alfred-Wegner-Institute for Polar – and marine research in Bremerhaven, Germany, are presented. They should provide the authorities and the policy, practical and directly applicable recommendations for environmental monitoring and for the handling of the ammunition.
With great effort, the researchers have the samples obtained and analyzed chemicals emitted from the munitions bodies. This is true for the degradation products of the explosive TNT, and for arsenic-containing chemical warfare agents alike.
Toxins in fish and shellfish
Traces of ammunition were found in fish from the ammunition dumping areas. Mussels were exposed in the Kolberger Heide in small cages the influence of the ammunition, enriched TNT-degradation products. Thus, it is clear that toxic substances escape from the bombs and the organisms living there are recorded.
Dangerous dive: ammo remaining in the Kolberger Heide in the Baltic sea
In addition, the Team found that TNT for shells is toxic and in the case of fish the DNA damage, which can lead to tumors. The most sensitive flatfish species DAB in the Kolberger Heide, in fact, more liver tumors than elsewhere. A connection between the local TNT-load and increased Tumor-Rate, the statement said.
The degradation products of TNT were also mutagenic, so that the organisms are then exposed to the action of the ammunition, when the rapidly degradable TNT is already detectable.
-
War heritage: bomb disarm in GermanyChaos by bomb at Berlin’s main train station
Experts from the police, prepare the bomb for the unlock. The 500-pound explosives from the Second world war was discovered during construction work in the vicinity of Berlin’s main train station. About 10,000 people had to leave their apartments, the main train station, as well as parts of the city are paralyzed.
-
War heritage: bomb disarm in GermanyMega evacuation in Frankfurt
It was the largest evacuation action of the German post-war history: More than 60,000 people had to be on 3. September 2017 in the city on the Main apartments, the squad from the ordnance bomb disposal your Job to leave. The time the Evacuees expelled, among others, in museums or on the fair grounds, where there was catering and lounge facilities.
-
War heritage: bomb disarm in GermanyChristmas with obstacles
In Augsburg, the shot firer in 2016, had to move out during the Christmas holidays, to make a two-ton unexploded ordnance harmless. After some Tinkering, the managed, and approximately 54,000 evacuated residents were able to return after twelve hours, relieved in their homes.
-
War heritage: bomb disarm in GermanyLast Possibility: Blowing Up
In August 2012, a U.S. bomb had to be detonated in Munich, Germany from the Second world war in a controlled manner. Attempts to defuse the 250-kilogram bomb that had failed. The pressure wave from the blast damaged the facades, many Windows were broken. Also the orange burgers in the state of Brandenburg, about all that remained of 2017, nothing more than a dud get rid of.
-
War heritage: bomb disarm in GermanyA dangerous Job
During a Routine defusing a dud exploded in the summer of 2010 in Göttingen. Three explosives officers were killed, people were injured. A couple of years previously, the expert also died in Wetzlar explosives, as they wanted to make a bomb harmless. A total of eleven blast master dropped since 2000, when Disarm their life.
-
War heritage: bomb disarm in GermanyAmmo on the bottom of the sea
Whether mines, bombs or grenades: Also in the North sea, the Baltic sea and the internal waters of a lot of Explosives from the Second world war rust yet – estimated at more than 1.5 million tons. Because some of the ammunition was not before the end of the war by the Germans sunk, so that she fell to the allies in the hands. Another was dumped after the war, in the order of the victorious powers in the sea.
-
War heritage: bomb disarm in GermanyBomb-Ridden Koblenz
In Koblenz, which was in the Second world war, the destination of many air attacks, had to be made so many duds, unfit. The Koblenz had to be around 1999, 2011 and 2015 for bomb divisions disarm leave their homes. For the defusing and detonation of several bombs in the Rhine in December 2011, all 45,000 people were evacuated.
-
War heritage: bomb disarm in Germany4000 kg in Ludwigshafen, Germany
In Ludwigshafen, was found in 1997 that a British 40-quintal-to-air mine. The triggered up until the time the largest evacuation action of the post-war history: 26,000 people had to leave their homes, so that experts could perform the mitigation.