The Pacific’s Nuclear Timebomb
101 East investigates if the legacy of America’s nuclear bomb testing is the poisoning of the Pacific Ocean.
The Pacific paradise of Enewetak Atoll harbours a devastating secret – the toxic legacy of American nuclear testing.
Between 1946 and 1958, the US military tested 43 nuclear bombs in the Pacific.
Now a concrete dome – 46cm thick – seals 80,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste on the deserted island of Runit.
But the dome is not working. Rising sea levels threaten to flush a vast stash of highly radioactive plutonium into the Pacific Ocean.
This is not the only fallout – the soldiers who cleaned up the mess and the Marshallese islanders are abandoned by a government refusing any responsibility.
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Published On 8 Feb 2018