The Legacy Of Wars Past...

[Mission]

I stumbled across this link by chance today and it got me thinking, just how many ticking timebombs are there in total?

 

clicky

 

I'll look out for the programme in question, as it does look interesting but you have to ask, how many more of these timebombs are still out there that effectively are known about but not being acted upon?

[WilDDog]

Oh I don't know, Sellafield has more than likely done more damage over the years Link

 

There is lots of information on pollution.

 

Even the weapons including chemical that were dumped are polluting the Irish sea Link

[silverback]

Could some kind person explain 'Weapon Grade Mercury'. I am aware of it's poisonous nature, also of it's use in switchgear, etc. But????

[tucker]

Could some kind person explain 'Weapon Grade Mercury'. I am aware of it's poisonous nature, also of it's use in switchgear, etc. But????

 

 

http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/mercury.htm

[Amadeus]

Nevermind some little German U-Boot, not as long as the Yanks are still having a habit of "losing" things, especially nuclear ones:

 

Weapons accidentally dropped by the United States include incidents near Atlantic City, New Jersey (1957), Savannah, Georgia (1958) (see Tybee Bomb), Goldsboro, North Carolina (1961), off the coast of Okinawa (1965), in the sea near Palomares, Spain (1966), and near Thule, Greenland (1968). In some of these cases (such as near Palomares), the explosive system of the fission weapon discharged, but did not trigger a nuclear chain reaction (safety features prevent this from easily happening), but did disperse hazardous nuclear materials across wide areas, necessitating expensive cleanup endeavors. Eleven American nuclear warheads are thought to be lost and unrecovered, primarily in submarine accidents. Wiki

 

List of military nuclear accidents

[Lonan3]

Nevermind some little German U-Boot, not as long as the Yanks are still having a habit of "losing" things, especially nuclear ones:

 

Weapons accidentally dropped by the United States include incidents near Atlantic City, New Jersey (1957), Savannah, Georgia (1958) (see Tybee Bomb), Goldsboro, North Carolina (1961), off the coast of Okinawa (1965), in the sea near Palomares, Spain (1966), and near Thule, Greenland (1968). In some of these cases (such as near Palomares), the explosive system of the fission weapon discharged, but did not trigger a nuclear chain reaction (safety features prevent this from easily happening), but did disperse hazardous nuclear materials across wide areas, necessitating expensive cleanup endeavors. Eleven American nuclear warheads are thought to be lost and unrecovered, primarily in submarine accidents. Wiki

 

List of military nuclear accidents

 

Hey, Buddy! That ain't nothin' at all. Just put it down to.... erm.... hey! I know! Friendly fire! How's about that?

[silverback]

Thanks all. But still looking for 'weapons grade mercury'

[Albert Tatlock]

Thanks all. But still looking for 'weapons grade mercury'

 

I suspect they meant Mercury for the preparation of Mercury Fulminate. It would be shipped as Mercury first.

 

Mercury that is 'impure' and used in the process usually ends up affecting the mix and blowing up whoever is making it - hence the term 'weapons-grade mercury'.

 

 

_

[Rhumsaa]

Not quite on the same scale but you just need a few walks along the northern beaches to find a bit of debris from the RAF bombing raids etc

[Amadeus]

Not quite on the same scale but you just need a few walks along the northern beaches to find a bit of debris from the RAF bombing raids etc

Have a chat with the folks at the aviation museum - you'd be surprised how many planes and things are still buried all over the Island - must have been a rather tricky approach back then...

[Albert Tatlock]

Not quite on the same scale but you just need a few walks along the northern beaches to find a bit of debris from the RAF bombing raids etc

Have a chat with the folks at the aviation museum - you'd be surprised how many planes and things are still buried all over the Island - must have been a rather tricky approach back then...

There is a lot of stuff we don't know much about, and always three versions of the truth (the official line, the unofficial line/rumour and the truth) e.g. see Beaufort's Dyke

 

"One of the main concerns is Beaufort's Dyke, a deep submarine trench in the Irish Sea between Scotland and Northern Ireland, used as a munitions dump since early last century...

 

He told the programme: "Most of the weapons dumped in the Beaufort's Dyke... weren't designed to go under water.

 

"There are sporadic explosions two or three times a month, I should think, in the Irish Sea, popping off all the time." Asked whether the oldest munitions in the Dyke were losing their ability to withstand corrosion, Mr Fellows said: "Yes. They are getting old and they're liable to go bang."