Russia demonstrates "revolutionary" new demining technique

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Russia demonstrates "revolutionary" new demining technique
AP Photos
By ERIC ENGLEMAN
Associated Press Writer
  KRASNOARMEYSK, Russia (AP) - New Russian technology can
help significantly reduce the world's stockpiles of deadly
anti-personnel land mines, Russian officials and experts
said Tuesday.
  "This technology can be used for the most dangerous types
of mines, ones that are decaying and prone to unexpected
explosions," said Vladimir Korenkov of the Mine Action and
Ammunition Center, which organized a demonstration at a
military firing range in Krasnoarmeysk, just outside
Moscow.
  The technique is geared toward a Soviet-era cluster bomb,
the KSF-1, which reached the end of its life cycle two
years ago and is prone to corrosion and spontaneous
detonation, Korenkov said. Each KSF-1 bomb is filled with
60 to 80 anti-personnel land mines.
  To disable the bomb, crews drill small holes in its outer
shell, being careful not to trigger the explosive
mechanism, and inject a cementing agent which neutralizes
the mines inside.
  Korenkov said the new technique does not pollute or damage
the environment, as with traditional disposal methods like
burning or detonating. The mines, once disabled, are
harmless but retain their explosive potential and can be
reused for civilian purposes, like blasting holes in
industrial mines, he added.
  To drive home that point, military officers detonated a
"disabled" mine next to an active one, to show that the
"disabled" mine can still be made to explode.
  "We can give a second life to these munitions, and use
them for safe purposes," Korenkov said.
  The new technology has not been put to use by
international organizations, but Russian officials clearly
hope to use it to play a bigger role in the global demining
campaign. The Russian Mine Action Center is a private
organization but has the support of officials in Russia's
Defense Ministry.
  Russia says it ended mine production years ago, and
imposed a five-year moratorium on export of certain kinds
of mines in 1997. But like the United States and China,
Russia has not ratified the Ottawa Convention banning
anti-personnel land mines, because it says it still needs
mines for defensive purposes around sensitive military
installations.