Runit (island)
| Runite | ||
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| Archipelago | Ralik chain , Marshall Islands | |
| Geographical location | 11 ° 32 '42 " N , 162 ° 21' 11" E | |
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| length | 3.1 km | |
| width | 263 m | |
| surface | 43.6 ha | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
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The island rune is one of about 40 islands in the east of the atoll Eniwetok in the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands .
geography
Runit is roughly in the middle of the northeast reef rim of the atoll. The island is 3100 meters long and up to 263 meters wide. The area covers around 46.3 hectares .
530 meters from the north-western tip of the island is a nuclear waste storage facility, the Runit Dome, with a diameter of 120 meters in a former crater from a nuclear weapon test from 1958 .
Crater of the May 5, 1958 detonation (Operation Hardtack I, Cactus Explosion)
Aerial view of the Runit Dome from the northwest
history
Nuclear weapons tests took place as part of Operation Redwing . A crater in the north of the island came from the lacrosse test on May 4, 1956. The crater is located east of the northern tip of the island.
On May 5, 1958, a nuclear weapon test was carried out here as part of Operation Hardtack I : the Cactus explosion (18 kt). A crater was created with a diameter of over 100 m.
A total of 14 nuclear weapons tests are counted on Runit.
In the years 1977 to 1980, the Cactus crater was filled with 101,498 cubic meters (partly plutonium-containing ) radioactive soil from the other islands of the atoll. A portland cement dome was built to cover the radioactive material. The cost of the action was $ 239 million.
According to a study from 2012, radioactive material is leaking. It is also to be feared that the dome could be damaged in a typhoon .
A rise in sea level could flood the terrain.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.underwaterkwaj.com/enew/runit.htm
- ↑ Jan Hendrik Hinzel, Kim Wall, Coleen Jose: Cathedral of death. Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 3, 2015, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
- ↑ http://www.utaot.com/2013/01/25/the-nuclear-trash-can-of-the-pacific-on-enewetak-atoll
- ↑ http://www.researchgate.net/publication/264812066_Radioactive_waste_buried_beneath_Runit_Dome_on_Enewetak_Atoll_Marshall_Islands
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/03/runit-dome-pacific-radioactive-waste
- ^ Susanne Rust: How the US betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster. Los Angeles Times, November 10, 2019, accessed November 12, 2019 .