Climate change could unearth, disturb Cold War-era nuclear waste buried by the US, officials say

According to a federal report, rising global temperatures are causing Arctic ice to melt and sea levels to rise, which may disturb Cold War-era nuclear waste buried by the United States decades ago.
If greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change continue at their current rate, hazardous waste buried beneath former nuclear weapons testing sites could be unearthed by 2100, according to a report released last month by the United States Government Accountability Office.
At multiple testing sites around the world, the US military detonated atmospheric nuclear weapons, or hydrogen bombs, and then attempted to clean up the leftover radioactive waste by placing it in containers covered with a concrete cap, according to Robert Hayes, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at North Carolina State University.
Rising temperatures may lead to the spread of radioactive contamination from these test sites in the coming decades, according to a Government Accountability Office report that examines what remains of nuclear debris in the Pacific Ocean, Greenland, and Spain.
Chemical pollutants and radioactive liquid left over from a nuclear power plant at Camp Century, a US military research base, were frozen in ice sheets that may melt in the coming decades, according to the report. Denmark has set up permanent ice sheet monitoring in the region.
A study published in May 2023 found that the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting faster than previously thought. According to scientists, ice loss in the Arctic is the single largest contributor to global sea level rise.
In the Marshall Islands, the Runit Dome on Enewetak Atoll was used as a radioactive waste disposal site that could be disturbed if sea levels continue to rise.
The United States conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958, according to the Department of Energy. William Roy, a professor of nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told ABC News that the majority of the testing was conducted in preparation for World War III.
There are currently disagreements between Marshall Islands officials and the US Department of Energy about the risk posed by nuclear waste.
While the Department of Energy considers human health risks in the Marshall Islands to be low, Indigenous communities are concerned that climate change will mobilize radiological contamination, jeopardizing fresh water and food sources, and local officials believe the US government is downplaying the risks, according to the report.
The report's authors recommend that the United States Department of Energy develop a strategy to regain the trust of Indigenous communities in the Marshall Islands.
The US military believed their cleanup missions were sufficient at the time, but they failed to account for long-term environmental changes in these regions, according to Hayes.
"The military was in the rush of the Cold War," Hayes said in an interview. "In hindsight, they could have done a better job."
According to the report, the site of the 1966 midair collision between two US defense aircraft, one carrying a hydrogen bomb, over the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain exceeded European Union radioactive contamination standards.
However, experts agree that the waste does not present an immediate threat.
According to Hayes, if nuclear waste leaks from the containers, it is unlikely to cause significant damage because it will dilute dramatically in ocean waters.
Roy explained that when the Greenland reactor was decommissioned, the spent fuel, which contained the components with the longest half lives, was removed. According to the Danish government, the short-lived radionuclides have most likely decayed by now. The remaining nuclides trapped in the ice would most likely be diluted by the massive amount of water created during melting, according to Roy.
Roy added that there is likely to be a "tremendous amount of dilution" in the Marshall Islands, despite the fact that Plutonium has been detected there.
According to experts, the mere mention of radioactive material can elicit fear.
"There is generally a public fear that is much higher than the actual risk," Hayes said in an interview.