Switzerland offers $60K cash prize for ideas to rid its iconic alpine lakes of military ammunition
Switzerland offers $60K cash prize for ideas to rid its iconic alpine lakes of military ammunition
Most of the ammo is said to be submerged between 150 and 220 meters deep in Lake Thun, Lake Brienz, and Lake Lucerne.
Explode nuclear weapons in the lakes. One per lake. This will definitely rid you of the ammunition.
This might cause the water in the lake to disappear though. This is the only problem.
Huge magnet, where's my money
Ammo usually has brass cartridges so they wouldn’t be magnetic.
The department is now turning to academics and industry workers as it looks at how to carry out "environmentally friendly and safe recovery of deep lake ammunition" — which carries a risk of explosion and could also lead to pollution in the lakes.
Yea, seems to me the risk of removing is greater than leaving them be.
They're at the bottom of a lake. When you consider what's required to deal with that environment, and every phase of removal, I'm skeptical "the juice is worth the squeeze".
No mention of analysis performed to assess leaving it alone, or the origin of this request (why is it now a concern? What changed?)
It's a minimum of 150m/450ft deep. Has any of it exploded, ever? Given the types of munitions, what's the likelihood of that happening.
Also, BI, what a crappy "news" source - they never have any detail.
2 words: time travel
Offer a reality show competition where people dive to the bottom and stick metal poles into the mud. Winner gets to be Switzerland's entry into Eurovision Song Contest.
Just pay a reward for any ammunition found in the lakes and turned into local authorities. Divers from all over will flock to the lakes. Good for tourism too.
Great for diver tourism or great for disaster tourism of people watching the divers blow themselves up?
Just let the brits bet on the divers and you'll make bank