Runit Island () is one of 40 islands of the

Enewetak Atoll Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...

of the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Inte ...

in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

. The island is the site of a

radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapon ...

repository left by the United States after it conducted a series of nuclear tests on Enewetak Atoll between 1946 and 1958. There are ongoing concerns around deterioration of the waste site and a potential radioactive spill.

Runit Dome

Construction

The Runit Dome, also called Cactus Dome or locally , is a diameter, thick dome of concrete at

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...

, encapsulating an estimated of radioactive debris, including some

plutonium-239 Plutonium-239 (239Pu or Pu-239) is an isotope of plutonium. Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 is also used for that purpose. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three mai ...

. The debris stems from nuclear tests conducted in the Enewetak Atoll by the United States between 1946 and 1958. From 1977 to 1980, loose waste and topsoil debris scraped off from six different islands in the Enewetak Atoll was transported here, mixed with concrete, and stored in the nuclear blast crater of the

Cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

test from May 6, 1958. Four thousand US servicemen were involved in the cleanup and it took three years to complete. The waste-filled crater was finally entombed in concrete.

Erosion

In 1982, a US government task force raised concern about a probable breach if a severe

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

were to hit the island. In 2013, a report by the

US Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...

Visual Description of the Concrete Exterior of the Cactus Crater Containment Structure LLNL-TR-648143
/ref> found that the concrete dome had weathered with minor cracking of the structure. However, the soil around the dome was found to be more contaminated than its contents, so a breach could not increase the radiation levels by any means. Because the cleaning operation in the 1970s only removed an estimated 0.8 percent of the total

transuranic waste Transuranic waste (TRU) is stated by U.S. regulations, and independent of state or origin, to be waste which has been contaminated with alpha emitting transuranic radionuclides possessing half-lives greater than 20 years and in concentrations gr ...

in the Enewetak atoll, the soil and the lagoon water surrounding the structure now contain a higher level of radioactivity than the debris of the dome itself, so even in the event of a total collapse, the radiation dose delivered to the local resident population or marine environment should not change significantly. Concern primarily lies in the rapid tidal response to the height of the water beneath the debris pile, with the potential for contamination of the groundwater supply with radionuclides. One particular concern is that, in order to save costs, the original plan to line the porous bottom crater with concrete was abandoned. Since the bottom of the crater consists of permeable soil, there is seawater inside the dome. However, as the Department of Energy report stated, the released radionuclides will be very rapidly diluted and should not cause any elevated radioactive risk for the marine environment, compared to what is already experienced. Leaking and breaching of the dome could however disperse

plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exh ...

, a radioactive element that is also a

toxic heavy metal A toxic heavy metal is any relatively dense metal or metalloid that is noted for its potential toxicity, especially in environmental contexts. The term has particular application to cadmium, mercury and lead, all of which appear in the World ...

. An investigative report by the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' in November 2019 reignited fears of the Dome cracking and releasing radioactive material into the soil and surrounding water. The DOE has been directed by Congress to assess the condition of the structure and develop a repair plan during the first half of 2020.

Illness of army personnel

Some of the US army personnel who participated in the dome construction and transport of radioactive materials claim that illnesses that developed years later are a result of unprotected exposure. Some of these have died of cancer and others have become sick. The US government denies that there is any connection between the work on the island and the health problems and has so far refused to offer any compensation for the illnesses associated with the construction of Runit Dome.

Gallery

File:Enewetak Atoll - 2014-02-10 - Landsat 8 - 15m.png, Runit Island, part of the Enewetak Atoll File:Ivy King - mushroom cloud.jpg, In 1952, the United States dropped the nuclear bomb

Ivy King Ivy King was the largest pure- fission nuclear bomb ever tested by the United States. The bomb was tested during the Truman administration as part of Operation Ivy. This series of tests involved the development of very powerful nuclear weapons ...

610 m (2,000 feet) north of Runit Island. File:Operation Hardtack I Cactus shot crater, Runit Island, Enewetak Atoll.jpg, Crater created by detonation on 5 May 1958 ( Operation Hardtack I, Cactus test)

References