FOR 60 years the wreck of the Richard Montgomery and its lethal cargo of munitions has been settling into the silt of the Thames estuary in south-east England. The cargo is unstable and explosive. If one bomb goes off, it could easily set off the world’s biggest non-nuclear explosion – excepting volcanic eruptions – according to a four-year-old risk assessment published this week (see “Explosive wreck”).
Consultants began the risk assessment in 1999. Two years later, they reported that the best options were to remove the explosives or build earthworks to contain any blast. Above all, they said, “doing nothing” was…
