Radioactive tomb in Pacific about to leak
The Runit Dome in the Marshall Islands is effectively a radioactive "tomb." As the Los Angeles Times writes, it "holds more than 3.1 million cubic feet — or 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools — of U.S.-produced radioactive soil and debris, including lethal amounts of plutonium. Nowhere else has the United States saddled another country with so much of its nuclear waste, a product of its Cold War atomic testing program."
The radioactive waste is there because, reports the Times, "Between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear bombs on, in and above the Marshall Islands — vaporizing whole islands, carving craters into its shallow lagoons and exiling hundreds of people from their homes."
The Marshallese have been clamoring for years about the risk posed by the "Tomb", given it is poorly fortified to begin with. Now climate change is adding to the peril. Continues the Times:
"Now the concrete coffin, which locals call 'the Tomb,' is at risk of collapsing from rising seas and other effects of climate change. Tides are creeping up its sides, advancing higher every year as distant glaciers melt and ocean waters rise."
There have been flurries of news stories in recent months about the Runit Dome. On our magazine website, Beyond Nuclear International, we have been posting stories about the scandal in the Marshall Islands, where the US has effectively abandoned those afflicted by the atomic tests to a life of poverty, over-crowding and squalor. See Vlad Sokhin's powerful photo essay, and Darlene Keju's courageous story. Read about the US veterans who were treated as guinea pigs and then also neglected, and John Pilger's searing article. And watch Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner's powerful video poem about the Tomb. (Photo above of Runit Dome, Wikimedia Commons).
November 15, 2019