The disaster was not entirely averted. The battle that Hunter thought was being played out in the open was being played behind closed doors, as well. Before the AEC left Alaska, they imported several tons of radioactive waste and buried it in the vicinity of the proposed harbor site to examine how it disseminated through the ecosystem. Hunter talked about the findings in an interview with Hilary Hilscher, "they were turned down; they realized that they couldn't go ahead and make a nuclear blast because people were already loaded to the gills with the radioactivity. So what did they do but import a bunch of it and bury it and didn't tell anybody and now, 33 years later, it suddenly comes to light. I think those people were absolutely dastardly."