By: McKenna Wierman

Just outside a quiet little town in Mississippi, 1,306,000 gallons of contaminated radioactive liquids and water lay buried and nearly forgotten more than 2,700 feet below the surface of the earth. The only indication of the monstrous vat of radioactive goo that lies stewing in the ground is a brass monument cautioning the distant future of the danger below.

During the Cold War era of the 1960s, the United States government began the testing of nuclear devices west of the Mississippi River for the first time. Project Dribble, a branch of a larger “Vela Uniform Project” reported to have been conducting studies on how seismic waves travelled through various types of soil, was name of the nuclear testing operation, which took place at the Tatum Salt Deposit.

In 1964, the Atomic Energy Commission readied the dome for testing, evacuating approximately 400 residents who lived five miles downwind and two miles upwind of the detonation site to avoid any risk of nuclear contamination or testing mishap. The test, named the Salmon Event, occurred on October 22, 1964. It was considered a success.

Two months after the first underground detonation, researchers drilled holes and lowered instruments into the salt dome to test the amount of remaining radioactivity, accidently triggering a radioactive mud geyser. Attempts were made to clean up the spillage, and the U.S. Department of Energy claims that through further testing, it was concluded there was no lasting damage to the ground.

Because the first operation was considered a success, the AEC decided to follow the Salmon test with another nuclear detonation, called the Sterling Event. Sterling, which was detonated on December 3, 1966 after two failed attempts to set a large diameter casing to the salt, was somewhat smaller than the five kiloton Salmon, but still rattled the piney woods surrounding the salt dome.  

Again, the AEC drilled holes into the ground when lowered instruments to test the level of radioactivity, only to trigger another radioactive mud geyser. After the Sterling test, there were no more nuclear tests at the Tatum Salt Dome, though the site was used for gas-explosive testing in what the DOE called ‘Project Miracle Play’ briefly before being closed down in the 1970s. Radioactive materials underground were sealed into the dome, and exterior radioactive materials were shipped off to a storage site in Nevada to deteriorate.

Initially, residents were anxious that the nuclear blasts would blow radioactive materials into the air, though the government officials associated with the project as well as the scientists conducting the test assured residents the blast would be contained underground.

At the time of the experiments, all of the institutions involved in the nuclear testing claimed that there was no danger outside of the testing site, however, 400 residents of Lamar County were evacuated. Some of these Mississippians locked up cabinets and stabilized furniture and chimneys before retreating to safety.

It was reported by the Mississippi Historical Society that the blast from the first detonation could be felt miles away from the site. Horace Burge, who lived about a mile or so away from the test site, retuned after the detonation to find his kitchen floor littered with shards of broken dishes. In Hattiesburg, about 30 miles away from the testing site,  the editor of the local newspaper reported the Hattiesburg American office building swayed back and forth for three minutes.

The second explosion two years later, however, was much smaller. Residents as close as two miles from the testing site reported hardly having felt the earth shudder.

However, after the blasts the public became aware that the test sites had in fact become contaminated with nuclear waste during the drilling mishaps. Though the government made many attempts to clean up the radioactive spillage at the Tatum Salt Dome, residents of Lamar County were still nervous.

Decades after the blasts, Lamar County residents began to complain of lingering health effects, according to the Mississippi Historical Society. Some claimed Lamar County was suffering from cancer at a rate higher than the national average. At least one resident of Mississippi and former employee of Project Dribble was paid an undisclosed sum by the U.S. government for unspecified health damages as a result of the project. However, thus far the DOE has found no evidence to suggest the residents of Lamar County are at any risk of nuclear exposure.

Today, Mississippi residents around the Tatum Salt Dome hardly recall that just outside their homes is the only nuclear test site this side of the Mississippi River. No nuclear waste has thus far posed any risk to the quiet homes that rest along the edge of an underground cavern miles below the ground filled with radioactive decay. For now, the brass monument that warns future generations of the dangers that lie sleeping below stands like a loyal guard over Lamar County, and will hopefully continue to do so for a very long time.