Norway’s government has decided to raise a Nazi submarine that sank off its shores in the North Sea during World War II because it contains a massive quantity of mercury. The U-864 German sub was hit by torpedoes from the British submarine HMS Venturer as it tried to get to Japan with its cargo in 1945.

The Norwegian government wants to remove the sub because it is an obvious environmental hazard. “The fact that the wreck contains about 67 tons of mercury poses a significant threat to the environment,” Norwegian Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs Helga Pedersen told AFP. “We took this decision out of concern for the environment, the fishermen and the local population,” she added.

In addition to the mercury that was destined to be turned into weapons in Japan, the sub was carrying blueprints for a new class of German jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262. When the Nazi sub was sank, the vessel broke in two pieces killing all 73 sailors on board. The sub now lies two nautical miles off Fedje Island at a depth of 150 metres.

The sub was located in 2003, and was discovered to have been leaking several kilograms of mercury per year. This will eventually be an ecological disaster, so Norway will remove the sub in 2010 at an estimated cost of one billion kroner. The same outfit that lifted the Russian Kursk submarine will handle this operation.