In 1958, when the United States Army detonated a 18 kiloton nuclear bombknown as the «Cactus» test, a huge crater was left in a small island in the Pacific Ocean.
After the explosion that took place in the isla Runitin the Marshall Islands, the military filled it with contaminated soil and debris, creating a «grave» of nuclear waste currently known as the Runit Dome.
Nearly 50 years after the dome was built, experts worry that cracks in the radioactive dump covered in concrete indicate how vulnerable the place is to the rise in sea level that invades the coasts of the narrow island, reports Science Alert.
The dome of 115 meters widebuilt between 1977 and 1980 as part of military cleanup efforts, stands on more than 120,000 tons of contaminated material by US nuclear testing at Enewetak Atoll, including lethal amounts of plutonium.
The dome was conceived as a temporary solution to contain the material left behind after the nuclear tests, some of which It surpassed that of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in magnitude by a thousand times.
But since its construction, groundwater has penetrated the craterwhich would otherwise be unlined, and beneath which lies a bed of porous coral sediments, indicates Science Alert.
So far, this is the main source of leaks, but there are concerns that the dome layers, which were supposed to be above sea level, will not remain above water for long.
Chemist Ivana Nikolic-Hughes, from Columbia University, has found high radiation levels and significant amounts of five radionuclides in soil samples from the island, outside the dome.
This could be evidence that the nuclear tomb is leaking, although it could also be a result of the improvised nature of the cleanup effort, which also caused a large amount of waste to be dumped into the lagoon, he says. Science Alert.
a deadly element
In any case, the presence of plutonium-239a component of nuclear weapons that remains dangerous for more than 24,000 yearsjustifies serious concern due to its vulnerability to sea level rise and climate change.
«Given that sea levels are rising and there are signs that storms are intensifying, we are concerned that the integrity of the dome may be at risk,» Nikolic-Hughes told Evans.
«Runit is about 32 kilometers from where the people who use the lagoon live, so The consequences could be devastating,» informa Science Alert.
Most of Runit Island is just 2 meters above sea level.
Seen from above, it is easy to imagine the impact that a single meter of additional water could have on the atoll and the ruined nuclear grave of Runit Island. That’s how much sea level rise climate scientists predict for the Marshall Islands for the year 2100.
GML
