In an announcement despatched to Rigzone lately, UK-based Venterra Group plc highlighted “the important function of unexploded ordnance (UXO) mitigation within the quickly increasing offshore wind trade”.
Venterra, which describes itself as a devoted offshore wind providers platform, described the “scale of UXO dangers offshore” as “daunting” within the assertion, including that “an estimated 500,000 gadgets, equating to 100,000 tons of UXO, lie on the seabed surrounding Nice Britain alone”.
“For the offshore wind sector, these hidden risks current vital challenges that would disrupt surveying operations, trigger expensive delays, harm tools, and threaten the life and security of these working offshore,” Venterra stated within the assertion, which highlighted the corporate’s “proprietary database – The Vault 2.0”.
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This software represents a multimillion-pound funding in UXO knowledge collation, in response to Venterra, which stated within the assertion that it incorporates hundreds of main historic sources, together with mine maps from each World Wars, ship logs, handwritten air raid stories, and bespoke UXO desktop research.
“These sources have been painstakingly gathered by Venterra’s devoted crew of UXO knowledge archivists and army historians, who repeatedly search new info from nationwide and native archives, libraries, armed forces, and museums worldwide,” the corporate highlighted within the assertion.
Within the launch, Richard Pike, Director of Venterra Geoscience, stated, “our devoted UXO crew, comprising former army specialists with a long time of expertise, gives important advisory providers to lots of the largest offshore wind tasks across the globe”.
“From web site assessments and geophysical surveys to meticulous cable route planning, we guarantee security and effectivity by decreasing UXO dangers to As Low As Fairly Practicable (ALARP) ranges,” he added.
When Rigzone requested RenewableUK – which describes itself because the established, influential voice of the UK’s renewable vitality trade – for touch upon Venterra’s assertion, a RenewableUK spokesperson highlighted to Rigzone that UXO “is a matter acknowledged by the UK authorities”.
“A marine license is required for offshore wind exercise, in addition to for UXO clearance, and could also be required for investigative surveys to verify the presence of UXOs,” the spokesperson stated.
“Earlier this yr, Defra (Division for Surroundings, Meals and Rural Affairs) confirmed the introduction of new measures to scale back dangerous ranges of underwater noise and help protected species in the course of the clearance of UXO,” the spokesperson added.
“The package deal of measures is a part of the federal government’s Plan for Change and units out the expectation that operators use low-noise disposal strategies to clear unexploded ordnance in the course of the building and set up of offshore wind generators, with high-order detonations thought-about a final resort and relevant solely in ‘extraordinary circumstances’,” the spokesperson went on to state.
“As of January 2025, offshore builders are moreover required to reveal they’ve made clear efforts to scale back underwater noise throughout set up, and Defra has set out how it’s seeking to handle impulse noise (corresponding to from piling and UXO disposal) and steady noise (corresponding to from vessel actions) throughout all UK waters,” the RenewableUK spokesperson continued.
Rigzone has contacted Defra and the UK Division for Power Safety and Web Zero (DESNZ) for touch upon Venterra and RenewableUK’s statements. On the time of writing, neither have responded to Rigzone.
A coverage paper titled Marine surroundings: unexploded ordnance clearance joint place assertion, which was posted on the UK authorities web site on January 21, highlighted that, “after each World Wars, massive numbers of explosives had been left undetonated within the marine surroundings”.
“A rise in marine improvement is resulting in the invention of a large number of UXOs, which have to be cleared to guard human life and infrastructure,” the paper added.
“Low noise strategies of clearance must be the default technique used to clear any sort of UXO within the marine surroundings,” it continued.
The paper highlighted that UK authorities departments, devolved governments, and related our bodies “collaborated to develop this joint place assertion”. Defra and DESNZ had been two of these UK authorities departments, the paper confirmed.
To contact the writer, electronic mail andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
