Danger UXB

[15_the_circle]

[OT from cottage renovations]

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in its own way this is really quite encouraging.  here we are 65 years later and it looks like there are only ~21,000 of them still lying about, but at least somebody's come with a method of predicting where they are. 

(image: exetermemories.co.uk)

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UXBs aren't always provided by adversaries: in 1958 a 22,000 lb bomb on display at the entrance to RAF Scampton was discovered to be live. 

Comments

How about unexploded ordnance from the Civil War?

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I temped for the Army Corps of Engineers Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program for a while several years ago. I read about this story then and was quite impressed. The folks I was working for had to go to downtown St. Louis and dispose of fifty Civil War shells of various sizes and types, some with fuses intact. The problem was made worse by the fact that the shells were embedded in uranium-contaminated soil and that the weather was so cold that workers had to be rotated indoors every 20 minutes.

It wasn't the trickiest problem they dealt with over the years, but it was very helpful that they had all the specs on the ordnance at their fingertips, and knew exactly what they were dealing with and how it was likely to behave within a very short time after it was found. They had the surrounding buildings evacuated really fast, too!