Experience with the Deep Salvage Tool GRAB and Application for Nuclear Products and Oil Recoveryin Deep Sea Wrecks

摘要

The deep sea salvage tool Grab 3000 was a remotely operated tool,rndeployed from a standard drill ship and able to penetrate inside wrecksrnfor recovering valuable cargoes. It was specially developed by Ifremerrnin 1994 for recovering silver inside the wreck of SS John Barry, arnWWII Liberty ship sunk at a depth of 2600 metres.rnFollowing the success of this operation, Blue Water Recoveriesrn(BWR), acquired this tool and operated it on numerous targets inrnAtlantic and Mediterranean Sea. One year later, a new tool, Grab 6000,rnbased on the same concept, but able to operate at 6000 metres withrngreatly enhanced performance, entered into service.rnHowever, despite great technical successes, allowing to recover severalrnthousands tons of valuable cargoes from depths of nearly 4000 metres,rnthe activity stopped after two years of continuous operations.rnAll pilots that have operated the Grab have been amazed by thernsimplicity of operating such a safe and powerful tool with such accuraterncontrol. The authors, which have been fully involved at Ifremer andrnBWR in the development and the operation of this salvage tool stronglyrnbelieve that this proven concept cannot be forgotten and is applicablernfor an European environmental tool ready to operate in emergencyrnsituations concerning nuclear products and oil recovery from deep searnwrecks.