---
title: "UN: A “Radioactive Coffin” May Be Leaking Into the Ocean"
description: "Radioactive waste may be leaking from a concrete-covered \"coffin\" in the Marshall Islands and into the Pacific Ocean, warns the UN's secretary general."
date: "2019-05-16"
modified: "2019-05-17"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/radioactive-waste-coffin-leaking-pacific"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "atomic weapons"
  - "marshall islands"
  - "radioactive waste"
  - "the digest"
---

# UN: A “Radioactive Coffin” May Be Leaking Into the Ocean

![Radioactive waste may be leaking from a concrete-covered "coffin" in the Marshall Islands and into the Pacific Ocean, warns the UN's secretary general.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/radioactive-waste-coffin-leaking-pacific.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Testing Grounds

Between 1946 and 1958, the U.S. government tested [67 nuclear weapons](<https://www.atomicheritage.org/location/marshall-islands>) in the Marshall Islands. It later dumped radioactive waste from the tests into a crater on one of the islands, placing an 18-inch-thick concrete dome over the [horrifying sludge](<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/03/runit-dome-pacific-radioactive-waste>).

Because the crater was only supposed to be a temporary storage solution, the bottom of it was unlined. That's led to recent concerns that the "coffin" is leaking radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean — a potentially devastating blow to both the environment and the people of the region.

## Coffin Concerns

While speaking to students in Fiji on Thursday, United Nations Secretary General [Antonio Guterres said](<https://www.afp.com/en/news/3954/un-chief-concerned-nuclear-coffin-leaking-pacific-doc-1gi1012>) that Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine was "very worried" about the possibility of radioactive waste leaking from the coffin.

While he didn't offer any [specific solutions](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nobel-prize-lasers-destroy-nuclear-waste>) for dealing with the waste-filled crater, he did say that "a lot needs to be done in relation to the explosions that took place in French Polynesia and the Marshall Islands," [according to the *AFP*](<https://www.afp.com/en/news/3954/un-chief-concerned-nuclear-coffin-leaking-pacific-doc-1gi1012>), adding that "this is in relation to the health consequences, the impact on communities and other aspects."

**READ MORE:** [UN chief concerned nuclear 'coffin' leaking in Pacific](<https://www.afp.com/en/news/3954/un-chief-concerned-nuclear-coffin-leaking-pacific-doc-1gi1012>) \[*AFP*\]

**More on nuclear waste:** *[Nobel Prize Winner: Lasers Could Permanently Destroy Nuclear Waste](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nobel-prize-lasers-destroy-nuclear-waste>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)