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Saturday, July 4th, 2015

This dome in the Pacific houses tons of radioactive waste – and it’s leaking

Author:     Coleen Jose, Kim Wall and Jan Hendrik Hinzel
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Friday 3 July 2015 06.00 EDT
 Link: This dome in the Pacific houses tons of radioactive waste – and it’s leaking
Stephan:   There are hundreds of facilities storing nuclear waste. They are all aging, their maintenance under-funded, and their potential for catastrophe very high. Here's what I mean. Once again why do I find these stories in publications like the Guardian, and not The New York Times, or on ABC News?
Bravo Crater at Bikini Atoll, site of the 1954 hydrogen explosion where the island of Nam was destroyed. Credit: Alamy

Bravo Crater at Bikini Atoll, site of the 1954 hydrogen explosion where the island of Nam was destroyed.
Credit: Alamy

RUNIT ISLAND — Black seabirds circle high above the giant concrete dome that rises from a tangle of green vines just a few paces from the lapping waves of the Pacific. Half buried in the sand, the vast structure looks like a downed UFO.

At the summit, figures carved into the weathered concrete state only the year of construction: 1979. Officially, this vast structure is known as the Runit Dome. Locals call it The Tomb.

Below the 18-inch concrete cap rests the United States’ cold war legacy to this remote corner of the Pacific Ocean: 111,000 cubic yards of radioactive debris left behind after 12 years of nuclear tests.

Brackish water pools around the edge of the dome, where sections of concrete have started to crack away. Underground, radioactive waste has already started to leach out of the […]

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