Located in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, the Marshall Islands are an isolated paradise with picturesque scenery, but they also hide a huge potential threat.
Figure: The red part is the Marshall Islands
On one of the uninhabited islands, called Runit, there is a dome structure made of concrete with a diameter of 115 meters in the north. People outside call it the Runit Dome, while the locals call it the “tomb.”
The concrete thickness of the Runnet Dome reaches 46 centimeters, and underneath it are 73,000 cubic meters of radioactive debris and tons of reflective material “sealed” inside.
Runnet Dome, source: Los Angeles Times
This is a relic of the United States' past nuclear tests. However, due to decades of neglect, the “seal” has now been lifted and serious cracks have appeared in the concrete dome.
This will threaten the safety of the island residents and the environment, and may even affect each and every one of us due to seawater pollution.
Poisoned Paradise
About 3,200 years ago, humans migrated to the Marshall Islands and settled there, but due to isolation, they lived a very backward life.
It is believed that when the Spanish accidentally discovered these islands in the 16th century, the indigenous people there did not even have simple furniture, only woven mats and other items.
Although the Marshall Islands is now an independent country, in the past, due to its geographical location, it became a battleground for military strategists and was successively occupied by Germany, Japan, and the United States, where bases were established.
Also because of its geographical location, when these countries occupied there, they conducted some scientific experiments that could threaten human survival – including biological experiments and nuclear tests.
Figure: Nuclear bomb test on Runet Island
There is very little information available about the biological experiments on the island, but the nuclear tests there are traces that cannot be erased, so a lot of relevant information can be found on the Internet.
In 1944, the United States seized the Marshall Islands from Japan, and began testing atomic and hydrogen bombs on the islands in 1946.
By 1958, in just 12 years, the United States had detonated 67 nuclear bombs on Eniwetok and Bikini Islands in the Marshall Islands, with an explosion power equivalent to 1.6 Hiroshima atomic bombs detonated every day for 12 years.
According to official reports, these explosions vaporized atolls, produced radionuclides that settled in marine sediments, and covered surrounding islands with ash from the explosions.
The ash is a fine, white, powdery substance that some local children mistake for snow and play with.
These ashes actually contain a large amount of radioactive nuclear waste. To this day, there is still no place on Earth that has more nuclear waste than there.
However, in the 20 years after the end of US nuclear bomb testing, these nuclear wastes were not treated on the island. They just covered the island freely, and were moved by the wind and seeped into the soil.
It wasn't until the early 1970s that locals on the surrounding atolls began to put pressure on the United States, claiming that their livelihoods had been severely affected by decades of nuclear testing.
Due to public pressure, the United States had to start cleaning up the nuclear waste, which was the origin of the Runnet Dome.
Building a “nuclear waste graveyard”
Runit Island is one of the most radioactively contaminated sites in the entire Marshall Islands. The United States conducted 11 nuclear tests there, leaving behind a total of 8.8 cubic meters of radioactive nuclear waste, including plutonium-239, which has a half-life of 24,000 years, as well as a huge explosion crater in the north of the island.
Image: Crater
The US plan was to collect the surrounding radioactive debris and dump them all into the deep pit, and then seal it with thick cement.
About 4,000 U.S. service members were involved in the project – cleaning up nuclear waste and building domes, but the working conditions were extremely poor.
The weather on the island was too hot to wear protective clothing, so thousands of shirtless soldiers shoveled tons of radioactive dirt and transported it to the pit until it was completely filled.
Cleaning work, Image source: Tim Snider
According to some people's recollections, the radioactive ash covered their entire bodies like baby powder. Masks were in short supply and they could not get any on many working days. They could only use T-shirts to cover their mouths and noses.
Of course, this kind of work took its toll on their bodies, and later in life many of the soldiers who took part developed cancer, and even had their children born with birth defects.
However, compared with American soldiers, the locals were more affected, and their bodies were found to have serious excessive levels of radioactive cesium – a radioactive substance with properties very similar to sodium, which will be absorbed by the human body and have long-term effects.
Cracked Dome
Although the Runnet Dome was indeed built with a huge amount of manpower, material resources, and financial resources (US$218 million), it is not a “conscience project.”
The original plan was to pour cement over the entire bottom and walls of the pit, but due to limited funding, they ultimately did not do so and simply dumped the nuclear waste into it.
Today, not only has the dome developed severe cracks due to long-term storms and soil movement, but water has also begun to seep from the bottom of the pit.
The study found,Radiation levels in the Runit Dome are already much higher than in areas affected by the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters.
On the other hand, the Marshall Islands is the region most affected by sea level rise, with sea levels rising by 0.76 cm per year, while other places generally see a rate of 0.28-36 cm per year.
If sea-level rise is not addressed, within a few years much of Runet Island could be submerged, with seawater pouring directly over the dome, causing more significant, even global, impacts.
Christopher Michel
at last
For the people of the Marshall Islands, the dome represents both a painful past and an unstable future.
Therefore, the Republic of the Marshall Islands is currently actively asking the United States to resolve this issue, but the United States does not want to invest any more financial resources in it.
Their experts have assessed the Runet Dome and said that they do not expect the radioactive materials inside to have any measurable adverse effects on the surrounding environment over the next 20 years.
Additionally, the United States stated that they had fulfilled their responsibilities to the Marshall Islands and that since the dome was located in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, they were now under no obligation to repair it.
However, the president of the Marshall Islands expressed a different view, saying that a country with a total population of 53,000 and a GDP of US$1.9 has no ability to cope with such a potential radioactive disaster.
And the Runyon Dome was never intended to be a permanent solution. It was built as a temporary solution – to store contaminated materials until a permanent cleanup plan was developed (at the time, only the three most seriously affected islands had been cleaned up).
Therefore, he believes that the United States still has the responsibility to deal with nuclear contamination and repair the Runet Dome.
Original report: https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/the-crumbling-runit-do