As nuclear explosions go, the US “Cactus” bomb test in May 1958 was relatively small — but it has left a lasting legacy for the Marshall Islands in a dome-shaped radioactive dump. The dome — described by a UN chief Antonio Guterres as “a kind of coffin” — was built two decades after the blast in the Pacific ocean region. The US military filled the bomb crater on Runit island with radioactive waste, capped it with concrete, and told displaced residents of the Pacific’s remote Enewetak atoll they could safely return home. But Runit’s 45-centimetre (18-inch) thick concrete dome has now developed cracks. And because the 115-metre wide crater was never lined, there are fears radioactive contaminants are leaching through the island’s porous coral rock into the ocean.
Daily Mail 26th May 2019 read more »