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Concrete ‘lid’ covering radioactive debris from nuclear bomb tests ‘is starting to crack’

The lid is starting to crack (Getty)
The lid is starting to crack (Getty)

The detonation of the first hydrogen bombs marked a new, chilling era of the Cold War nuclear arms race – but the relics of the era might endanger mankind again.

This week UN Secretary General António Guterres told a crowd in Fiji that rising seas could endanger a ‘kind of coffin’ built to contain radioactive materials from America’s hydrogen bombs.

The concrete ‘lid’ was built on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands to contain radioactive material from American nuclear tests in the 1950s.

Speaking in Fiji, he said that the dome is dangerously vulnerable, and that a strong storm could release the debris inside.

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Mr Guterres said, ‘“I’ve just been with the President of the Marshall Islands (Hilda Heine), 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.

America conducted 57 nuclear tests in the South Pacific (Getty)
America conducted 57 nuclear tests in the South Pacific (Getty)

From 1946 to 1958, America conducted 67 nuclear tests in the South Pacific.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres travelled to three South Pacific island nations to see the effects of climate change firsthand.

Guterres said the Pacific needs stronger international support because climate change is taking place faster than efforts to address it.

His trip came ahead of the Climate Action Summit that he plans to convene in September in New York.

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