WMD in the Thames?

For 60 years the people of Sheerness in Kent have been living next door to a 1400-tonne time bomb. A lethal mixture of unstable second world war bombs is in the rusting wreck of the Richard Montgomery, a US cargo ship that lies half-submerged on a sandbank in the Thames, only two kilometres from the Kentish town.

If the wreck explodes it will be one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever. The cargo contains a mixture of fused and unfused bombs that were destined to support the Allied push in France following the D-Day landings.

For the first time a New Scientist investigation has established that UK government explosives experts believe that some of the fuses are unstable. Even a small shock could cause one of them to detonate, setting off part or all of the rest of the cargo.

The investigation has uncovered official estimates of the devastation that the explosion would cause, including predictions of a three kilometre high column of water, mud, metal and munitions sent into the air by the blast.

Full story in New Scientist. Why the ship's cargo wasn't taken care of during or immediately after the war would appear a bit mystifying.

Posted by David on August 27, 2004 5:41 PM