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Norway’s land and waters are contaminated with explosive munitions from wartime. According to new research, this amounts to around one million tons of explosive ordnance.
Mapping of the extent has been carried out by Lieutenant Colonel Geir Novik of the Norwegian Defence Research Institute (FFI).
Novik warns that the ammunition can cause serious accidents:
There is always a risk that they will detonate. This could be due to an accident during excavation work or the explosives becoming unstable over time.
The Norwegian Defence Force is deployed on around 500 occasions each year to deal with explosives on behalf of the police. The Storting will meet on Thursday to develop a plan to clear up more of the deadly ordnance.
