Enewetak Atoll

After World War 2 when the Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Ocean came under the U.S. control, local residents were involuntarily evacuated. Forty-three nuclear tests were then conducted on the island from 1948 to 1958. In 1977, USA started a $100 million decontamination project, during which contaminated soil and debris were buried under an 18-inch thick, 25 foot high spherical concrete cap, dubbed “Cactus Dome.” The Dome is currently deteriorating and could be breached by a typhoon, though the sediments in the lagoon are even more radioactive than those which are contained.