Concrete ‘Coffin’ Storing U.S. Atomic Bomb Waste At Risk Of Rupture

The U.S. put nuclear waste under a dome on a Pacific island. Now it’s cracking open.




On March 1, 1954, the U.S. government detonated its First-ever weaponized hydrogen bomb at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Scientists had underestimated the size of what became known as the “Castle Bravo” test, resulting in an explosion that was 2½ times larger than expected. Radioactive ash dropped more than 7,000 square miles from the bomb site, caking the nearby inhabited islands.
“Within hours, the atoll was covered with a fine, white, powder-like substance,” the Marshall Islands health minister would later testify, according to the Atomic Heritage Foundation. “No one knew it was radioactive fallout. The children played in the ‘snow.’ They ate it.”
From 1946 to 1958, 67 U.S. nuclear tests pulverized the tranquil reefs and islands of the central Pacific. International pressure finally halted the tests, but the damage was done — and continues to this day.

On May 16, 2019, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres was on a tour of the Pacific Islands to discuss climate change. In Fiji, he told a crowd about the huge “kind of coffin” built by the United States in the Marshall Islands to house the deadly radioactive debris from the 1980's. The structure, however, was never meant to last, and due to disrepair and the rising sea tides, it is becoming more vulnerable.

“I’ve just been with the president of the Marshall Islands [Hilda Heine], who is very worried because there is a risk of leaking of radioactive materials that are contained in a kind of coffin in the area,” Guterres said in Fiji, Agence France-Pressereported.

Beginning in 1977, the Defense Nuclear Agency began a sustained cleanup of the nuclear debris left over on Enewetak Atoll, a slender ring of coral islands in the Marshall Islands’ northwestern corner. That same year, 4,000 U.S. service members began collecting an estimated 73,000 cubic meters of tainted surface soil across the islands.

The material was then transported to Runit Island, where a 328-foot crater remained from a May 1958 test explosion. For three years, the American military dumped the material into the crater.

In 1980, a massive concrete dome — 18 inches thick and shaped like a flying saucer — was placed over the fallout debris, sealing off the material on Runit. But the $218 million project was only supposed to be temporary until a more permanent site was developed, according to the Guardian. However, no further plans were ever hatched.

The fallout included plutonium-239, an isotope that is one of the world’s most toxic substances, and one with a radioactive half-life of 24,100 years. The staying power of that material is the problem. It’s still there, only 18 inches of concrete away from waters that are rising.

Cracks have reportedly started to appear in the dome. Part of the threat is that the crater was never properly lined, meaning that rising seawater could breach the structural integrity.
“The bottom of the dome is just what was left behind by the nuclear weapons explosion,” Michael Gerrard, the chair of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, told the ABC. “It’s permeable soil. There was no effort to line it. And therefore, the seawater is inside the dome.”

A 2013 report by the Energy Department admitted that radioactive material may have already begun to leak from the dome, but it said the health risks were "probably low".

'Washingto n Post' Article Link

It's beyond criminal..the stuff that nuclear powers have done to this planet

look what science has done to this planet. It's creations have caused a real lot of harm and destruction of the environment and unbalanced life on the planet. Are we going in the right direction?

Couple science with desire for wealth and prestige and power and we wind up in a bad place.

Why are the waters rising they don't seem to be anywhere else?

a reply to: rickymouse

I feel as though we are already on the doorstep of that 'bad place'.

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

What horrors we have done, in a slice of paradise!
There is no doubt in my mind: that we are that absolutely most stupid species ever.
We crap in our own dens, and will be our own demise. Extinction by stupidity.
No use to be afraid of aliens, or 5G, or China.


(This may, or may not be a true story):
As patrol mission QWERTY 14-219 scanned the local area of this galaxy, Zoop asked Glap for a status report on the 3rd rock goldilocks planet:
-Well sir: it seems like they have made quite a bit of progress since our last survey.
-Good.
-They have even developed satellite-based weapons systems!
-Oh! So they're rather clever then?
-Well not really. You see sir: they've pointed them at themselves...

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

That's not the only site we're worried about...

One site in Greenland was put far under ice, at the time they thought it would be frozen forever... It's melting.

A top-secret US military project from the cold war and the toxic waste it conceals, thought to have been buried forever beneath the Greenland icecap, are likely to be uncovered by rising temperatures within decades, .

Powered, remarkably, by the world’s first mobile nuclear generator and known as “the city under the ice”, the camp’s three-kilometre network of tunnels, eight metres beneath the ice, housed laboratories, a shop, a hospital, a cinema, a chapel and accommodation for as many as 200 soldiers.

The worse part

In reality, the camp served as cover for something altogether different - a project so immense and so secret that not even the Danish government was informed of its existence.

“They thought it would never be exposed,” said Colgan. “Back then, in the 60s, the term global warming had not even been coined. But the climate is changing, and the question now is whether what’s down there is going to stay down there.”

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

There's also nuke waste trouble much closer to home. The nation seldom hears about it but we who live at ground zero do; not thru approved sources though.

www.latimes.com...

www.wiseinternational.org...

The planet was stolen from the population by criminals

a reply to: rickymouse

Indeed. Our scientific development and lack of concern for it's negative impact on the environment has and is doing severe damage to the planet. Do you think it possible that that science has had an impact to the degree of changing climate as well?

For me it is not unreasonable to consider that the extent to which mans scientific advances (?) have reached this point.
You?

I've read-up on this before, it's a scary thought that it's simply been neglected this whole time.

This is a short documentary that outlines the situation;



The Earth is going through hell with us being here, imagine how bad things will get once we're not here to at least try to contain our mess.

Granted, we seem to be dong a terrible job anyway.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

The Earth is going through hell with us being here, imagine how bad things will get once we're not here to at least try to contain our mess.

Probably better. Our existence pales in context to the time frame of earth.

I don't even think saying we're a minor fever would be fitting.

originally posted by: LtFluffyCakes96


A 2013 report by the Energy Department admitted that radioactive material may have already begun to leak from the dome, but it said the health risks were "probably low".

it will "probably" not be an issue at all. Much like Fukashima. The Ocean is a big place, just think parts per million. See, don't you feel better now? A little pollution isn't really a big deal....is is?

They better figure out what to do about this stuff pretty quickly or it's going to be to late to do anything. Just ask the Japanese who're dealing with Fukishima.

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: rickymouse

Indeed. Our scientific development and lack of concern for it's negative impact on the environment has and is doing severe damage to the planet. Do you think it possible that that science has had an impact to the degree of changing climate as well?

For me it is not unreasonable to consider that the extent to which mans scientific advances (?) have reached this point.
You?

Science created the power plants, science created street lights which burn all night long taking juice. Science created big machinery that big industry uses, it also created all the bad chemicals dumped into our oceans. Science created a way for more people to overpopulate the world, but it is our wants, not our needs, that is the problem. Science created chainsaws and cars. It created plastic and it's use made Oil wells possible. It created cheap air travel.

Wasnt Fukushima supposed to have killed everyone by now?
Or at least killed our oceans?

a reply to: rickymouse

Certainly for all you point out. It is man misusing science that brings on our problems.
So what do we do? Curtail the science or do something to control the misuse.? Is not one of the precious freedoms people rail that are being taken from us are the freedoms to ignore the consequences of the misuse of science? And that misuse that we both recognize, is it to far a cry to think that that very misuse to the level of climate disruption?

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

Surprised they have not begun dredging sand like other island Atolls have done? With this higher risk here, I think it would be a priority to assist in keeping the erodin waves away.
Sure dredging sucks currently for the marine life, but I think nuclear waste would be more harmful.

Some newer climate friendly ideas for future islands woes coming from MIT. Just need to buy some time to enact this newer technology.

MIT Self-Assembly Lab may key to save the Maldives

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: rickymouse

Certainly for all you point out. It is man misusing science that brings on our problems.
So what do we do? Curtail the science or do something to control the misuse.? Is not one of the precious freedoms people rail that are being taken from us are the freedoms to ignore the consequences of the misuse of science? And that misuse that we both recognize, is it to far a cry to think that that very misuse to the level of climate disruption?

Way more science is used to coax money from people than is used to help humanity. There is more profit in profiting by science than finding things that make us not spend money.