Rostock fights against poison: New Center for ammunition recovery started!

Rostock fights against poison: New Center for ammunition recovery started!

A new chapter in the ammunition recovery on the North and Baltic Sea is opened. In Rostock, a federal competence center is established that has set itself the task of freeing the contaminated waters from dangerous world war ammunition. It is estimated that around 1.6 million tons of ammunition are stored there, which have been rusting in the sea unused for over 80 years and continuously release toxic substances such as the carcinogenic explosive TNT. Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig are committed to recovering these dangerous contaminated sites. NDR reports .

The Federal Competence Center should not only take over the coordination of the rescue measures, but also develop a floating extermination platform that enables direct demolition of the recovered ammunition on site. This would be a real progress because the currently used method to transport ammunition to Munster is considered unsuitable. Expert: Inside, interest in the construction of these platforms, such as companies such as Rheinmetall and TKMS. The Federal Environment Agency estimates that only five to ten tons of ammunition are recovered from the sea floor every year, which illustrates the dimension of the problem.

The dangers of the ammunitional loads

The rusting metal covers of the sunken ammunition releases pollutants in the sea environment, including not only TNT, but also other dangerous connections such as RDX and HMX. These substances are not only toxic, but also change in genome and can also contain heavy metals such as mercury. In the Baltic Sea, 5,000 tons of chemical ammunition were even sunk that has the potential to disturb physiological functions of marine organisms. The state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein therefore warns of the considerable dangers that assume these legacies of World War II.

future prospects

The federal government has currently planned 100 million euros in the federal budget, but experts consider this sum to be insufficient. The comparison to the annual expenses of the five German energy network operators, who are also responsible for the ammunition, shows that there is a higher need for financing. The researchers at the University of Rostock also hope that about a fifth of the ammunition that has been left behind in the next 20 years.

The discussion about this topic will continue, since pilot projects and new technologies are also in the starting blocks. The challenges are great, but with a good hand and a clear plan, it could be possible to defuse the “ticking time bomb” of the ammunitional loads and to protect the sea environment sustainably.