Anthropology & Nuclear Waste Storage

[gwinna]

How to deal with nuclear waste is a serious question that anthropologists are helping to solve. One major issue is the rise and fall of civilizations while the waste remains dangerous (thousands of years).

"Expert Judgment on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant" is a document that tries to answer the

Comments

[5x6]

how to be sure that future peoples don't ignore these warnings like we currently ignore the curses warned of in ancient Egyptian tombs

Supposedly the future people will know better the real value of these warnings, just as we know better than Egyptian the value of their curses... So probably they WILL ignore them, just a we justly ignore the Egyptian curses.

[lucian_maxwell]

Forgive me if I'm misinterpreting you, but are you saying that warnings of nuclear waste have a "real value" equatable with Egyptian curses?

[5x6]

I am sure that for Egyptians their curses were just as real and as scary, and nuclear waste is to our generation. I suggest that "future peoples" will be better judges than us. So yes, such warnings are useless

[lucian_maxwell]

Ah, alright. I understand where you are coming from now. I would agree that the issue of nuclear waste has been significantly politicized. Though, as you yourself must know as a scientist, 21st century warnings should still have more weight and consideration than ancient Egypt due to the modern scientific ability and knowledge.

But that being said, I largely agree about the social aspects. (I can't comment on the scientific aspect, as that is far out of my field)

[kenosis]

I wonder how much money the government blew deciding to put Munch's "The Scream" on a concrete bunker.

[crazylaughboy]

for those who are interested, Susanne Antonetta's environmental memoir, as she calls it, "The Body Toxic", goes into this whole concept @ Yucca Mountain in depth.

http://www.amazon.com/Body-Toxic-Environmental-Susanne-Antonetta/dp/1582432090/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247062300&sr=8-2

it also happens to be a very good read. also of interest if the Pine Barrens hold something in your imagination.