A job with no scope for second chances: detecting, identifying and disposing of grenades, mines or bombs. That's the job of the army's explosive ordnance disposal unit, the so-called "Service de Déminage", in short SEDAL.
Over 70 years ago, Luxembourg was hit hard during the Battle of the Bulge. Bombs and grenades fell all over the country and an estimated 30% did not explode back then. 5 tons of potentially explosive material are found in average per year.
The deactivation and disposing of such explosives is one of SEDAL's tasks. The unit intervenes 250-300 times a year, that is 4-5 times a week.
SEDAL is not only active in Luxembourg. Indeed, this kind of specialists are in high demand in war zones. The unit has for instance intervened in Cambodia, former Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Bosnia and Afghanistan. Also, while land mines have been banned in a variety of countries since 1997, millions of mines still exist all over the world and need to be disposed of.
RTL spent a day with SEDAL. Unfortunately we only have a Luxembourgish version for the moment, but the images are quite telling and so we wanted to share this interesting report with you.
One very important message conveyed by the specialists interviewed is to never, ever touch anything that looks like a grenade or bomb. No matter how old, and deteriorated the devices may look, most of them still have an active detonation mechanism. If you happen to find an explosive device during a walk in the forest or during construction works you can either call SEDAL directly at tel. 26332227, or call the police emergency number 113.
A video report by Max Hesse
