Department of energy has been grappling with that problem recently as they designed the warning markers to use at yucca mountain and at the waste isolation pilot plant wipp nuclear waste storage facilities. Ucs opposes reprocessing because it increases proliferation and terrorism risks while actually adding to the waste problem rather than reducing it. Reprocessing separates nuclear waste into component materials including plutonium which can then be re used as nuclear reactor fuel but also as the raw material for a nuclear weapon.
Designing a nuclear waste warning symbol that will still make sense in 10 000 years by 99 invisible the waste isolation pilot plant in the new mexico desert is the nation s only permanent. Andra the french nuclear waste agency behind the project opened an art competition last year to address this issue. A nuclear warning designed to last 10 000 years.
As a matter of fact because the waste can remain active for millions of years there are many dangers of nuclear waste including the following seven hazards. However when nuclear power is mishandled or if nuclear waste is stored improperly it can become hazardous to living beings. The dome was.
Built on a giant hole in the atoll caused by a 1958 nuclear test it is known as the cactus crater the structure holds over 100 000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris. Because we re not sure that hey don t touch this will mean the same thing in the future. On wiki of the week we read the wikipedia page for long time nuclear waste warning messages which are are intended to deter human intrusion at nuclear waste repositories in the far future within or above the order of magnitude of 10 000 years.
How do we tell our distant descendants people 10 000 years fr. Nuclear semiotics is the discipline of communicating the nature of radioactive waste to people who don t know what it is. This question may not seem the most burning one but as the world increasingly buries its nuclear waste a growing number of experts are trying to come up with a way to warn future generations.
A 1993 report from sandia national laboratories recommended that any such message should. Nuclear semiotics is an interdisciplinary field of research first done by the human interference task force in 1981. Long time nuclear waste warning messages are intended to deter human intrusion at nuclear waste repositories in the far future within or above the order of magnitude of 10 000 years.
