"Dramatic Consequences" From Leaking U.S. Nuclear Dump Site In Marshall Islands Says U.N. Chief

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed his concerns over nuclear material from an atomic bomb-waste dump site leaking into the Pacific Ocean. The dump site was built on Runit Island, part of Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The U.S. government used a crater from an atomic bomb explosion, which was filled with tons of nuclear ash from other tests and capped with concrete that was about 18 inches thick. The bottom of the "coffin", as islanders call it, was never lined with anything.The original concrete dome has begun to crack, contaminating the area with nuclear material. "The consequences of these have been quite dramatic, in relation to health, in relation to the poisoning of waters in some areas," Secretary-General Guterres said. "I've just been with the President of the Marshall Islands, who is very worried because there is a risk of leaking of radioactive materials that are contained in a kind of coffin in the area." The 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 most powerful ever detonated by the United States, about 1,000 times bigger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.