UN chief concerned nuclear ‘coffin’ leaking in Pacific

AFP (French press agency)  May 16, 2019
Marchalls island nation was ground zero for 67 American nuclear weapons tests from 1946-58 at Bikini and Enewetak atolls, when it was under US administration. The tests included the 1954 “Bravo” hydrogen bomb. The “coffin” is a concrete dome, built in the late 1970s on Runit island. Radioactive soil and ash from the explosions were tipped into a crater and capped with a concrete dome 45 centimetres (18 inches) thick, it was only envisaged as a temporary fix and the bottom of the crater was never lined. Cracks have developed in the concrete after decades of exposure and there are concerns it could break apart if hit by a tropical cyclone. A lot needs to be done in relation to the explosions that took place in French Polynesia and the Marshall Islands…read more.

A huge concrete dome built over a crater left by one of the 43 nuclear blasts on Runit Island photographed in 1980

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