The first attempt to detonate a wartime naval mine at the bottom of the Gulf of Finland to make way to the planned Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany has failed.
According to Nord Stream, the company responsible for building the pipeline, the Wednesday afternoon blasting attempt in the sea area just south of Helsinki was unsuccessful, despite all the careful preparation work.
“There are two possible reasons for this: either the detonation charges set in place by a remote-controlled robot failed to go off, or they did go off but failed to ignite the explosive agent inside the mine”, Nord Stream Senior Project Engineer and Pipe Laying Specialist Simon Bonnell told the Finnish news agency STT.
According to Bonnell, the efforts to blast the mine may not continue until the coming weekend.
The start of the mine clearance operation has been postponed several times because of bad weather. With all the preparatory work, the blasting of every single mine takes between one and two working days.
In the autumn Nord Stream was given permission to commence the mine clearance operation, although a final decision on a permit to build the pipeline itself through the Finnish economic zone is still to be delivered.
More than likely the work will continue well into next year.
