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March 28, 2009

Cactus Dome

Runit

Intrigued? Just stare at this photo a bit and try to imagine what it might possibly be. I'm thinking... the secret lair of Jame Bond's nemesis? Better yet... evidence of a crashed spaceship!... (because it looks a lot like the top part of the U.S.S. Enterprise to me).

Enterprise  

Turns out, we're not so lucky. Brookings reveals the bitter truth...

Beneath this concrete dome on Runit Island, part of Enewetak Atoll, built between 1977 and 1980 at a cost of about $239 million, lie 111,000 cubic yards or radioactive soil and debris from Bikini and Rongelap atolls. The dome covers the 30-foot deep, 350-foot wide crater created by the May 5, 1958, Cactus test.


Runit03
click to enlarge panoramically

via pruned

March 28, 2009 | Permalink

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Comments

The arhitecture is very simmilar to The venus project.

Posted by: World After 2012 | Mar 29, 2009 7:16:08 AM

Bitter truth indeed... Fascinating nonetheless.

Posted by: BWJones | Mar 29, 2009 7:30:41 PM

Something tells me this isn't a tourist hot spot.

Posted by: Scott Elyard | Mar 30, 2009 11:03:19 AM

Wow, I wonder if we are going to donate a dome to Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well?

Posted by: robert | Apr 17, 2009 12:05:17 PM

If you look at satalite pics it looks like they missed plugging the hole by 600 ft. Google Earth 11.552517,162.347271

Posted by: Sky420 | Apr 17, 2009 2:21:29 PM

Something tells me this isn't a tourist hot spot.

Heh. Just a plain old hot spot.

Posted by: burhan | Apr 17, 2009 10:49:08 PM

Found on Google maps - click on my initials go jump to the spot. I'm more concerned with the uncapped hole just north-east of this one.

Posted by: KSS | Apr 18, 2009 1:19:36 AM

Here it is on google earth http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=Runit+Island&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

Posted by: Fabian | Apr 18, 2009 4:53:23 AM

Of course these days you can see anything on google maps (maybe better images on google earth, too):

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Enewetak+Atoll&ie=UTF8&ll=11.553404,162.34776&spn=0.005918,0.009452&t=h&z=17

Looks like it's in pretty bad shape these days.

Posted by: Geoff | Apr 18, 2009 9:07:39 PM

well sky40, the dome is not about plugging a hole in the ground, but about covering tons of radiactive debris moved to this spot from several test sites in the area. the crater next to it might easily be the remains of another bomb test, something one should not be to concerned about, since its right next to the place they supposebly used to throw in all the nuclear waste and then sealed it.

Posted by: veto | Jun 19, 2009 8:05:24 AM

My father was stationed at Eniwetak in 1958, where he'd get as close as he could to view the mushroom clouds. He died of multiple forms of cancer in 1987, but the government said that there was no conclusive proof to substantiate my mother's claim that his brain, hip, and lung cancers were caused by radiation poisoning. Thanks, US Army.

Posted by: Kim Matthews | Jun 22, 2009 4:01:14 PM

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