De-mining goes hi-tech
2005-05-10 17:27
Pretoria - The era of disposing landmines by detonation could be over after a high-tech device was unveiled on Tuesday which neutralises mines with a remote-controlled gas flame.
British inventor Paul Richards and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research unveiled the MineBurner, a remote controlled device which burns landmines without the need to move, touch or detonate them.
"The unique feature of the MineBurner is that it does not contain any explosive components and is thus air transportable and low-cost.
"This will make it easier to transport to areas where it is needed for humanitarian de-mining operations," Richards said at Paardefontein, the CSIR testing centre north of Pretoria.
The device consists of a metal tube called an "ignitiator" by Richards, because it initiates the burning process and ignites gases and a separate pot-like chamber called an air-splitter.
The ignitiator is fitted with a pouch containing three separate bladders filled with oxygen pumped from the air, cooking gas or cigarette lighter fuel and compressed air.
The gases are conveyed into the air-splitter which is placed near a mine.
A remote charge is then set off which ignites the gases, which burn through the shell-casing of the mine.
Richards explained that it was not heat which detonated a mine but rather an initial detonation within a mine which sets off the main charge.
The device burns through the shell of a mine and burns up its main charge which means if the initial detonation does go off, only a small explosion occurs.
"At no point does the mine have to be lifted or touched for the device to work.
"This is especially useful in the disposal of mines fitted with anti-lifting devices which cause them to detonate when they are moved," Richards said.
"The thickest mine casing we've come across is no more than 1.2mm thick.
"The ability of the MineBurner to penetrate thicker plates makes it possible for it to be used in the disposal of other unexploded ordinances," he said.
Richards described landmines as true weapons of mass destruction which reportedly killed or maimed 25 000 people world-wide each year.
"It is estimated that about double that figure of people are maimed or killed by mines, but their cases are unreported," he said.
A total of 83 countries in the world have a landmine problem, according to the UN, which estimates that some 60 million to 100 million devices have been strewn across territories worldwide.
In Africa, Angola and Mozambique have the highest number of landmines, a holdover from the long wars that raged in those countries.
- SAPA