The Containment Systems Experiment (CSE) program is reviewed, with emphasis on the inherent processes that remove fission products from containment atmospheres and reduce their leakage to the environment. The CSE containment vessel was sized to represent a one-fifth linear scale model of a typical 1000-MW(electric) pressurized water reactor. Nineteen tests were performed in a steam-air atmosphere simulating conditions after a loss-of-coolant accident. In eight tests, containment sprays were operated, in five tests a recirculating filter-adsorber loop was operated, and in six tests only natural, passive processes occurred. Sprays were the most effective in removing airborne iodine and particulate aerosols, followed by the filter loop. Although not as effective as the engineered safety features, natural processes of diffusion to surfaces, reaction with paint, gravity settling, and removal in leak paths are shown to be significant. Together they caused a reduction in leakage of 10-2 and 10-3 for iodine and cesium, respectively, during the initial 2-h period. These attenuation factors increased to 10-3 and 10-4, respectively, for the first 24-h period.