The Marshall Islands is exploring legal action against the US over a leaking nuclear-waste filled concrete dome.
The Runit Dome on Enewetak atoll was used to store radioactive materials leftover from American nuclear weapons testing during the 1940s and '50s.
But according to a report from the Marshall Islands Nuclear Commission, more than 99 percent of the waste has seeped into the atoll's lagoon.
The commission's chair, Rhea Moss-Christian, told Mackenzie Smith it's significant Cabinet endorsed the report.
The Runit Dome was constructed on Marshall Islands Enewetak Atoll in 1979 to temporarily store radioactive waste produced from nuclear testing by the US military during the 1950s and 1960s.
Photo: Supplied
Transcript
Rhea Moss-Christian: These are statements that have been made by local government leadership in affected communities for decades. Now hold it together, as I said, that strategy is really a reflection of our consultations with those things. But we do absolutely hope that this gets some attention at the US. But we recognize the responsibility now that we have an adopted strategy, to implement it. And part of that implementation will be to look for opportunities to meet with US officials, just to see where where we can make progress.
Mackenzie Smith: There's now consideration of legal remedy being sought by the Marshall Islands government. Would this be from the US?
RMC: Yes, so we're always considering legal options. There's a case in the past where many understand and interpret the outcome of that case, to be that there can be no further legal action sought. We recognise that conclusion. However, it doesn't stop us from continuing to explore and to look at any other legal remedies that might be outside of that.
MS: Do you expect to get anywhere with seeking the compensation from the US considering how much resistance there's already been?
RMC: I think we have to remain optimistic. We have people who continue to suffer. So, we can't ever sit back and think that nothing else, that nothing further can be done. The political environment is always changing. We don't know what the future brings. But as a nation that is still dealing with the impacts, we can't afford to sit back and accept that there's nothing further that can be done.
So, we develop these strategies, which which we acknowledge are not silver bullets, and there are no guarantees there. But we package them based on our discussions with affected communities and leadership and our understanding of the political climate and where we think there are actions that can be taken. Acknowledging that a lot of the work, there's already been decades of work on this issue, we don't think by any means that this strategy is the beginning of an effort. This is ongoing effort for decades and there's still a lot of work to do.
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