5 Abandoned Places That Are Nuclear Nightmares

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The Enewetak Atoll is a group of 40 low coral islands in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean. Among these is Runit Island.

The island is home to a vast concrete structure that appears quite alien compared to its surroundings. Named 'The Runit Dome,' or locally 'The Tomb,' this structure measures 115 meters in diameter, and its walls are almost half a meter thick.

Throughout the 1940s and 50s, the U.S. detonated 67 nuclear explosions in the Marshall Islands as part of Operation Hardtack. These weapon tests resulted in many of the islands being scattered with contaminated materials, which locals feared may poison the ecosystem and do irreversible ecological damage.

However, it was not until a few decades later, in the 1970s, that authorities made an effort to clean up the sites of the nuclear tests. Contaminated soil was scraped from the surface of 6 islands and deposited in a crater on Runit Island.

The crater - which had been created by the 1958 ‘Cactus’ missile test - was eventually covered over with concrete in an attempt to contain the toxic waste. At the cost of 218 million dollars, the Runit Dome was born...