At first glance, the aquamarine waters that surround the Marshall Islands seem like paradise. But this idyllic Pacific scene hides a dark secret: it was the location of 67 nuclear detonations as part of US military tests during the cold war between 1946 and 1958.
The bombs were exploded above ground and underwater on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls, including one device 1,100 times larger than the Hiroshima atom bomb. Chernobyl-like levels of radiation forced hundreds from their homes. Bikini Atoll remains deserted. At the US government’s urging, residents have begun returning slowly to Enewetak.
Today, there is little visible evidence of the tests on the islands except for a 115-metre (377ft)-wide cement dome that locals nickname the Tomb – for good reason.
Built in the late 1970s and now aged and cracking, the huge concrete lid on Runit Island covers more than 90,000 cubic metres (3.1m cubic ft) – or roughly 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools – of radioactive soil and nuclear waste. Unbeknown to the Marshallese people, the US shipped the waste from Nevada, where it was testing nuclear weapons on Native American land.
Edit: and yes I am aware it is actually concrete, not cement. I was angry when I posted this and wasn’t thinking clearly. (I live in the South Pacific, so today’s news was very much not welcome…)
the morons never lined the ground under the dome, just made a hole, shoved the waste into it and covered it up with a shitty dome.
so now rising ocean levels are saturating the soil below the dome, and the contaminated soil contained within is leaking out, and the dome itself is cracking.
Pomengranite on October 30th, 2025 at 03:59 UTC »
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/25/endless-fallout-marshall-islands-pacific-idyll-still-facing-nuclear-blight-77-years-on
Edit: and yes I am aware it is actually concrete, not cement. I was angry when I posted this and wasn’t thinking clearly. (I live in the South Pacific, so today’s news was very much not welcome…)
HawkDenzlow on October 30th, 2025 at 04:06 UTC »
Now they want to do it some more. Can’t we just get past the idea of destroying one another?
Thebraincellisorange on October 30th, 2025 at 10:55 UTC »
the morons never lined the ground under the dome, just made a hole, shoved the waste into it and covered it up with a shitty dome.
so now rising ocean levels are saturating the soil below the dome, and the contaminated soil contained within is leaking out, and the dome itself is cracking.
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-tomb-in-the-marshall-islands-contains-a-huge-amount-of-radioactive-waste