The delegate of the Government in Cantabria, Ainoa Quiñones, has inaugurated today, the exhibition on the 50th anniversary of the Service of Deactivation of Explosives and Nuclear, Radiological, Biological and Chemical Defense (SEDEX-NRBQ) of the Civil Guard, which is installed in the Delegation of Defense in Cantabria, in the Plaza Velarde of Santander.
The exhibition exhibits robots and specific material for the deactivation of devices, special suits used by the TEDAX of the Civil Guard, and other devices, which together with explanatory panels, make a review of the evolution of this specialty that has troops of a very high technical level.
In addition to the Government delegate, the inaugural ceremony was attended by, among other authorities, the President of the Parliament of Cantabria, the Presidential and Education Councillors of the Government of Cantabria, the President of the High Court of Justice, the Senior Prosecutor, the Colonel Chief of the Civil Guard of Cantabria, and the Colonel Delegate of Defense in Cantabria, thanking the latter, for the initiative of the Civil Guard for choosing that Delegation to pay tribute to the TEDAX.
The delegate of the Government has highlighted the “so specialized” work carried out by the personnel of this service of the Civil Guard and that, in the case of Cantabria, have carried out in recent years more than 300 destructions of explosive devices (grenades, projectiles, aviation bombs, etc.), located in different places of the Autonomous Community.
He has also praised the fact that they have actively participated in the investigations of the terrorist attacks with explosive devices suffered in Cantabria, being especially relevant the deactivation and withdrawal of two grenade launchers that the terrorist group ETA had placed to attack the airport of Parayas in 2005.
The exhibition can be visited from today and until next Saturday, May 13, from 11:00 to 14:00 and from 17:00 to 20:00 hours. On Saturday the schedule will be from 10:00 to 14:00 hours.
Half a century of citizen service
The Civil Guard Explosives Deactivation Service began its operations on March 2, 1973, with the first artificial agents. This specialty was created in order to deal with the escalation in terrorist actions with the use of explosives.
During the first two years, 374 civil guards specialized as deactivators, pioneers in the deactivation of bombs and explosives outside the Armed Forces. In 1980, the School of Technical Specialists in the Deactivation of Explosives of this Body was created.
In accordance with the times and needs of adapting to new terrorist forms, in 1999 the Explosives Deactivation Service (SEDEX) joined the Nuclear, Radiological, Biological and Chemical Defense (NRBQ). Currently there are 41 groups for the deactivation of explosives and 22 search and localization teams distributed throughout Spain.
SEDEX-NRBQ agents, better known as TEDAX (Technicians Specializing in Explosive Device Deactivation), since their inception, have neutralized more than 255,000 ammunition of all types and have deactivated more than 3,220 explosive devices, such as bomb-lashes or car bombs.
In Cantabria, as in the rest of Spain, these specialists work for the daily neutralization of projectiles that appear in different points, mostly coming from the Civil War, the intervention with explosive material coming from terrorist commands or the intervention in humanitarian catastrophes, as in 2021 in La Palma, where they carried out measurements and control of the gases after the eruption of the volcano, in order to guarantee the safe return to the homes of the evacuees.