green goblin
26/11/2004, 12:43 PM
From the BBC Irish sea packed full of explosives (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4032629.stm)
"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."
Beach hazard
A local councillor in Northern Ireland, Oliver McMullan, told Costing The Earth the Dyke contained sarin and tabun (both nerve gases), phosgene, mustard gas and explosives.
Incendiary bombs containing phosphate used to drift onto the shore each winter, said Mr McMullan.
"We had hundreds upon hundreds of these things getting washed up in a matter of days," he added.
"Out of the water, body heat will ignite them, or the heat of the sun, and then they just explode into flame.
"There was a couple of young boys here locally who got burns off them, and another in Scotland was burnt."
He fears the problem will worsen, telling the programme: "There's too much stuff down there that's only breaking up now."
"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."
Beach hazard
A local councillor in Northern Ireland, Oliver McMullan, told Costing The Earth the Dyke contained sarin and tabun (both nerve gases), phosgene, mustard gas and explosives.
Incendiary bombs containing phosphate used to drift onto the shore each winter, said Mr McMullan.
"We had hundreds upon hundreds of these things getting washed up in a matter of days," he added.
"Out of the water, body heat will ignite them, or the heat of the sun, and then they just explode into flame.
"There was a couple of young boys here locally who got burns off them, and another in Scotland was burnt."
He fears the problem will worsen, telling the programme: "There's too much stuff down there that's only breaking up now."