Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, green vines and turquoise waters circle a massive concrete dome. Half-buried in the sand, this is no spaceship wreckage but a haunting reminder of America’s Cold War recklessness. Officially, it is known as the Runit Dome. Locals call it “The Tomb.”
Constructed in 1979, this monstrosity houses 85,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste — enough to fill 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools — dumped by the U.S. during its nuclear tests in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI).
While the U.S. has left its radioactive mark across the globe, from Greenland to Spain, no other nation has been burdened with such a toxic legacy as the RMI.