/ | Ago "gh a | Date: Bit March 29, 1982 Contact: Barbara Jorgenson or Gail Porter, (202) 334-2138 RADIOACTIVE CONTAINMENT STRUCTURE ON ENEWETAK JUDGED SOUND BY RESEARCH COUNCIL PANEL OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON - With the end of nuclear weapons testing there in 1958, natives of snewetak (Eniwetok) Atoll began pressing for a return to their South Pacific homeland. In 1978, they came back, but not before the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA) oversaw a radiation cleanup effort that included placing contaminated topsoil, scrap metal, and other debris in a massive, domed concrete containment structure built over one of the >omb craters. Two years later, responding to concerns of the natives and-others about she structure's soundness and effectiveness, the DNA asked the National Research Council to study the matter. Now completed, the commmittee's report® concludes that "the Cactus Crater of Enewetak, either now or in the future." Pointing out that the purpose of the dome is to prevent human contact with the debris buried there, the committee found "no plausible sequence of events that would prevent the structure from performing this function." - | . (MORE) 4 *Press copies of the Evaluation of Enewetak Radioactivity -Containment are available from the Office of Information at the letterhead address. Others may obtain ~opies from the National Technical Information Service, ‘Springfield, Virginia 22161, elephone, (703) 487-4650. Please soecifv. PBA 5004301 containment structure and its contents present no credible health hazard to the people