Posted on 10/12/2018 9:31:02 AM PDT by C19fan
A Nazi submarine described as an 'underwater Chernobyl' is being sunk into sand to stop deadly chemicals leaking into the sea and the surrounding bed.
The wreckage of the German U-boat was left with 1,800 canisters of toxic mercury seeping into the sea off Bergen in Norway.
U-864 was torpedoed by a British submarine in early 1945 as it headed for Japan carrying jet parts.
The vessel left Kiel in Germany on December 5, 1944, but the hull was damaged in an attack and the captain headed for Norway to carry out repairs.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Wow. Very interesting fact. Would have not thought that to be the case. Thank you.
What a ridiculous term.
The Nazis did have a nuclear program. But this sub had nothing to do with that. There is no uranium here. There is no radiation concern here. They really should have found a better catchphrase.
Saw a fascinating documentary once describing how the British submarine used some early sound detection technology to predict the German U-boat’s zig-zag pattern, and then, doing a quick calculation, fired its torpedo so that it would run into the U-boat as it, in effect, “turned into it” ... it was quite an accomplishment in the early days of sonar technology ...
And the ocean currents will never move this fill?
And the fill will prevent the mercury from migrating?
And all the silt stirred up in this process will settle back exactly where it came from?
Better to pay too much the first time, than doing it twice.
I read where those U-Boats used mercury as ballast and helped the boat to submerge faster.
Thanks for posting this. Idiot Mediots in action again!
‘underwater Chernobyl’
What a ridiculous term.
The Nazis did have a nuclear program. But this sub had nothing to do with that. There is no uranium here. There is no radiation concern here. They really should have found a better catchphrase.
The Brit who figured out where to fire that torpedo was probably very with good basic math and excelled with geometry.
But they failed to do an environmental impact study before they fired their torpedo...../S
The article was quite unclear. I wondered if U-864 was traveling on the surface, but it was not.
Little puddles of Mercury can be found in many gold bearing creeks in the western US. Early prospectors used it to capture fine gold from the creek bed gravels and they weren’t very careful about recovering any that spilled. If you leave it alone there is very little danger. If you start messing with it you will create problems. LEAVE IT ALONE!
They're eventually going to start leaking.
Funny that they should make the Chernobyl comparison when there were no nuclear materials involved. It’s also funny that we have two REAL “underwater Chernobyls” in our oceans and fail to draw the right conclusions. The US’s Thresher and the Soviet’s Kursk are both nuclear powered subs sitting on the sea floor causing no problems at all. Nuclear power plants store fuel rods safely in a mere 15 feet of water. Putting nuclear waste under several miles of sea water is safer (and much, much cheaper) than burying them in salt mines, yet no on proposes that solution (except, so far as I know, me).
Jet parts?
Is mercury heavier than sea water?
For equal volumes, mercury is 13.6 times heavier.
Pure mercury has a density of 13.5 gm/cm3 compared to 1.03 gm/cm3 for saltwater so mercury will simply stay at the bottom of the ocean. Mercury poisoning from fish comes from soluble molecules that include mercury.
It is a ridiculous exaggeration. Most baby boomers played with mercury as kids and some even swallowed it. Although mercury vapor can be very bad for you and it can even be absorbed through your skin, when creatures including kids swallow liquid mercury most of it travels through their digestive systems without being absorbed. The little bit that remains in the system can still cause serious health problems.
The liquid mercury in this situation is not much of a hazard because it weighs approximately 13.6 times as much as water and does not mix with the water. The hazard in this case is that the surface of the liquid mercury that is exposed to sea water will react slowly and form oxides and other dangerous compounds that are absorbed by sea life and enter the food chain. These compounds are a health hazard that cause all sorts of nasty problems and are most dangerous to brains and nervous systems.
As long as the liquid mercury that is now oozing out of rusting containers is covered with enough sediment the amount of mercury coming into contact with sea water should be minuscule and not much of a hazard, certainly nothing like Chernobyl. Comparing the two is “ridiculous” as you say.
You want a purchase 50 grams of mercury on Amazon for $50 including shipping. This makes it $454 a pound. But a standard 76 pound shipping container is around $2000 these days which is only $26.31 per pound. There are 143300.47 pounds in a 65 tonnes (metric ton or 1000 kilograms). So the value of the mercury assuming most of it is still in its containers is less than $3,771,668. The value of the mercury is not worth anywhere near what it would cost to recover it, and the risk of further contamination is probably far greater than just burying it as planned.
There is a very interesting video on YouTube about the sinking of the sub.
In 1724, two Spanish Galleons, the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and the Conde de Tolosa, sank near the Dominican Republic. Their cargo was 300 tons of mercury and 100 bronze cannon.
No one seems to panic over them.
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