For 12 years during the Cold War, the United States ― locked in a fierce nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union ― laid waste to parts of the Marshall Islands with a series of devastating atomic bomb tests. The U.S. detonated a total of 67 nuclear and atmospheric bombs on the Marshallese atolls of Enewetak and Bikini between 1946 and 1958 ― forcing many islanders to abandon their ancestral homes and leaving behind a staggering amount of radioactive soil and ash that continues to threaten the region and its people today. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterreswarned last week that a concrete “coffin” built decades ago on an Enewetak island to contain U.S. nuclear waste is at serious risk of cracking open and spilling its toxic contents into the Pacific Ocean. Guterres, traveling in the South Pacific to discuss the dangers of climate change, said in Fiji on Thursday that Marshallese President Hilda Heine had expressed deep concerns about the aging vault. Heine is “very worried because there is a risk of leaking of radioactive materials that are contained in a kind of coffin in the area,” Guterres said, according to AFP.

A Cold War-era concrete "coffin" is leaking radioactive material into the Pacific Ocean, said a UN official.



The Marshall Islands dome was a dumping ground for waste from American nuclear tests from 1946-'58. It was supposed to be temporary. Now it's cracking. pic.twitter.com/JscOlS0saP — AJ+ (@ajplus) May 16, 2019

Scientists and locals have been raising the alarm for years that a big storm or rising sea levels caused by climate change could threaten the structural integrity of the coffin, known officially as the Runit Dome, and cause its collapse. “Runit Dome represents a tragic confluence of nuclear testing and climate change,” Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, told The Guardian in 2015. “It resulted from U.S. nuclear testing and the leaving behind of large quantities of plutonium. Now it has been gradually submerged as result of sea level rise from greenhouse gas emissions by industrial countries led by the United States.” About 111,000 cubic yards of radioactive waste is buried within the Runit Dome, The Guardian said. The unlined structure was built in the late 1970s as a temporary location for nuclear waste until a more permanent decontamination strategy was established. Almost 40 years later, however, no long-term plan has been made and the nuclear coffin ― which reportedly has visible cracks on its surface ― is the only thing preventing the slurry of nuclear material within from cascading into the ocean.

In the wake of atomic testing in the Marshall Islands, nuclear waste was dumped and disregarded. Now, there’s a risk it may leak into the ocean. @AJ101East investigates: https://t.co/kZLTXFQ1qWpic.twitter.com/NdGdH1iokC — 101 East Al Jazeera (@AJ101East) February 9, 2018