study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment revealed that radioactivity remains persistent in the lagoons of remote Marshall Island atolls in the Pacific Ocean where the United States carried out a total of 66 nuclear weapon tests between the 1940s and 1950s.
A team of researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) noted that while levels of radioactive cesium and plutonium have declined since the 1970s, the toxic elements continue to be released in the sea.
Data obtained from analyzed water samples showed that the levels of plutonium were 100 or more times higher in lagoon waters than the surrounding Pacific Ocean. The experts also found that the levels of a radioactive form of cesium were twice as high in the lagoon waters compared with the surrounding oceans.