Armaments Ammunition in the lakes: Armasuisse looking for ideas for recovery

The Federal Office for Armaments is looking for ideas for the environmentally friendly and safe recovery of ammunition from Swiss lakes. The three best ideas will receive a prize of 50,000 Swiss francs. The ideas will not be directly incorporated into the salvage process, but will serve as a starting point.

Between 1918 and 1964, the military dumped munitions in a number of Swiss lakes. As Armasuisse, the Federal Armaments Office, announced on Wednesday, these munitions are mainly located in Lakes Thun, Brienz and Lucerne at depths of between 150 and 220 meters.

With the ideas competition, Armasuisse wants to involve universities and industry more closely in considerations regarding the recovery of these deeply buried munitions, should this ever become necessary. According to Armasuisse, this could be the case if, "contrary to expectations, a release of pollutants" were to be found in the seawater.

In 2005, an investigation revealed that all possible solutions for munitions recovery at the time would have stirred up a lot of mud and thus endangered the sensitive ecosystem of the lakes.