Janne Kjellsson
Swedish Defence Forces, Sweden
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Published in: Proceedings from the Third International Disposal Conference; Karlskoga; Sweden; 10-11 November; 2003
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 9:11, p. 55–58
Published: 2003-11-07
ISBN:
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
Old ammunition and explosives have been dumped in the Baltic Sea; small lakes; and depleted mines up to 1965. So far; the Swedish Armed Forces have mapped 106 different dump sites; most of them in lakes (75) and in the Baltic Sea (25). The locations are spread all over the country. When the Armed Forces started this project; the purpose was to:
- find the exact location for each dumping;
- investigate the risks for the environment and decide what sort of environmental influence is possible in the future;
- assess the likelihood of spontaneous combustion;
- explore the possibilities of salvaging the ammunition; if needed.
A short summary of the results of our investigations and tests is:
- there are no good methods to locate ammunition buried in the bottom sediment of the sea;
- dumped ammunition is not harmful to the environment;
- there is no risk of spontaneous combustion as long as you do not move the ammunition;
there is no reason; from an environmental point of view; to salvage dumped ammunition.
