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Source: Global Science
Authors: Tara Wu and Ma Yiyi (Translators)
Nuclear waste stockpiled in the Marshall Islands during the Cold War by the United States, and climate change may cause these pollutants to enter the environment. Image source: U.S. Department of Energy
Melting ice and rising sea levels could lead to the release of radioactive material from U.S. Cold War-era nuclear tests into the environment, a new report has found.
A recent new report revealed that the United States produced nuclear waste during the Cold War and stored in other countries, and as the climate warms, these toxic substances are likely to pose a hazard to the environment and the health of local residents.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigated nuclear waste in the Marshall Islands, Greenland and Spain and released its findings earlier this year. As a result of U.S. nuclear testing in the decades following World War II, the three regions are threatened by radioactive contamination. The results show that as global warming melts the ice sheets and sea levels rise, the toxic radioactive materials contained in the ice sheets are likely to contaminate food and water sources.
These lingering nuclear contaminations come from nuclear explosions, including hydrogen bombs, as well as nuclear accidents around the world. Robert Hayes, a nuclear engineer at North Carolina State University in the United States, said in an interview with Julia Jacobo of ABC News that the U.S. government generally stores this nuclear waste near the site of a nuclear explosion. In Greenland, for example, they dump nuclear waste in the ice sheet, while in the Marshall Islands, they dispose of it under a concrete structure.
核武器试验。 (图片来源:pixabay)
Nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands
According to the report, the Pacific island nation of the Marshall Islands is disproportionately affected by climate change, putting them most at risk of nuclear waste.
During the Cold War, the United States built a concrete structure, the Runit Dome, in the Marshall Islands to store radioactive waste from nuclear tests. But as sea levels rise, groundwater beneath this concrete structure could gush out, causing radioactive material to leak. Storm surges can also spread radioactive material throughout the island, amplifying the impact of the spill.
Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, including the largest nuclear test at Bikini Toll in U.S. history. The explosion was about 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb and produced more radioactive fallout than science predicted.
Residents of the Marshall Islands have become victims of nuclear waste: multiple atolls remain uninhabitable, radiation has caused cancer and other diseases among Marshallese, and traditional food gathering methods have been greatly disrupted.
GAO director Nathan Anderson told Grist magazine's Anita Hofschneider that U.S. responsibility for nuclear waste in the Marshall Islands is "defined by specific federal regulations and international agreements." "The long-standing position of the U.S. government is that under the agreement, the Marshall Islands is fully responsible for its own lands, including those that were used for nuclear testing," Anderson told Smithsonian magazine. ”
The U.S. Department of Energy insists that the risk to human health and the environment posed by nuclear waste on the island is low. However, given the lack of trust among Marshallese people in the radiation information provided by the United States, the GAO recommended in the report that the U.S. Department of Energy and the Marshall Islands government strengthen communication.
The Marshall Islands has been the subject of several radiation exposure studies, including a study last year that speculated on the environmental impact of historical nuclear events from sea turtle shells.
Nuclear waste under the Greenland ice sheet
If greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, the Greenland ice sheet, which contains waste from Cold War nuclear tests in the United States, will melt within the next 75 years. A 2016 study noted that this would certainly lead to the release of nuclear contaminants into the environment from the U.S. military research base Camp Century.
Glaciologists work in Greenland. (Image source: wikimedia commons/CC BY-SA 4.0)
The study sparked widespread public concern, and Denmark, to which Greenland belongs, began to monitor the melting of the ice sheet around Camp Century for a long time, as well as to see if nuclear contaminants could seep out of the ice with meltwater.
Danish scientists have concluded that these pollutants are expected to be frozen by 2100. By then, the short-lived radioisotopes have decayed, while the long-lived isotopes will lose most of their radioactivity by the end of the century and will be diluted by melting ice. But other studies have found that the chemicals left behind by Camp Century, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a carcinogen, may have a more far-reaching impact.
"This could affect the environment and further affect the food chain, as well as the health of the local population," Hjalmar Dahl, president of the Greenland chapter of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, said in an interview with Grist magazine. ”
Plane crash over Spain
In 1966, two planes collided over Spain, one of them carrying a hydrogen bomb. Although it did not cause an explosion, two of the four hydrogen bombs that crashed to the ground were damaged, releasing radioactive plutonium and exposing the town of Palomares to the threat of nuclear contamination.
A 1990 assessment found that the level of nuclear radiation in the town of Palomares exceeded EU standards. In 2015, the United States and Spain reached an agreement to remedy the site. At first, the U.S. sent people here to clean up the contaminated soil and ship it to the U.S., but other than that, the two countries have not implemented any other measures.
Original link:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/climate-change-may-unearth-cold-war-era-nuclear-waste-stored-by-the-us-in-other-countries-180983901/
Cover image source: pixabay
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