Labeling nuclear waste for the future
NOV 16, 2009
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.023846
Slate Magazine : Communicating the dangers of nuclear waste to unfathomably remote descendants may seem like a topic best left to third-drink philosophers in dorm rooms.It’s actually been left to the US Department of Energy.According to government guidelines , DoE must plan for the continuing safety of nuclear waste sites over the next 10 millenniums.So in 1991, the department (through Sandia National Laboratories) hired 13 linguists, scientists, and anthropologists at a cost of about $1 million to devise a conceptual plan for a 10,000-year marker system.The summary report, dryly titled " Expert Judgment on Markers To Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion Into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant ,” was published in 1993.The report takes seriously the quixotic goal of warning far-off civilizations and ultimately proposes a system as elaborate as it is futile says Slate‘s Juliet Lapidos .
© 2009 American Institute of Physics
