Nuclear Vault

A massive concrete lid with 107 m in diameter lies on this tropical island. After WW2 the residents were evacuated, often involuntarily, and the atoll was used for nuclear testing as part of the U.S. Pacific Proving Grounds. Beneath this concrete dome with a diameter of 107 meters, on Runit Island (part of Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands), built between 1977 and 1980 at a cost of about $239 million, lie 85000 cubic meters of radioactive soil and debris from from 43 atomic and thermonuclear explosions on Bikini and Rongelap atolls between 1948 and 1958. The dome covers the meter deep and 107 meter wide crater created by the May 5, 1958, Cactus test which was 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.