Switzerland to solicit proposals to salvage munitions from lake
2024-08-10
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BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Swiss Arms Procurement Agency announced this week that it will hold a competition to solicit the best plan for recovering a large amount of ammunition that sank to the bottom of a lake during the last century belonging to the Swiss army.
According to multiple media reports, the Swiss military dumped more than 12,000 tons of obsolete and defective ammunition into several lakes, including Lake Lucerne, Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, between 1918 and 1964. Currently, most of these ammunitions are sunk to the bottom of the lake at a depth of 150 to 220 meters, covered with silt up to 2 meters thick.
This is a photo taken on May 14, 2012 at the shore of Lake Thun in Switzerland. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang JingdeIn recent years, the discussion on whether to salvage the ammunition has never stopped. An assessment in 2005 showed that the various salvage options considered at the time could not avoid stirring up the silt covering the ammunition, which would destroy the already fragile ecosystem in the lake. In addition, factors such as poor visibility at the bottom of the lake, the risk of ammunition explosion, undercurrents at the bottom of the lake, and the different specifications of ammunition all added to the difficulty of salvaging.
The Swiss Arms Procurement Agency has therefore decided to hold a competition, hoping that companies and universities with R&D capabilities will actively participate and provide solutions for salvaging the sunken ammunition. The deadline for submitting solutions is February 6, 2025, and the results of the competition are expected to be announced in April of the same year. The top three will receive a total of 50,000 Swiss francs (about 414,000 yuan) in prize money.
Swiss authorities said that the salvage plan collected this time is just a "starting point" and will not be put into action immediately. Previous tests have shown that these ammunition have not polluted the lake water, and unless they are found to pose an environmental risk later, they will not be salvaged rashly. (Yang Shuyi)
