a field of nightmares?
The only problem with ancient warnings is that nobody listens to them. For all we know, a future generation could find this site and think we worshipped spikes.
A half-mile below the surface of the New Mexico desert, the federal government is interring thousands of tons of monstrously dangerous leftovers from its nuclear weapons program –plutonium-infested clothing, tools and chemical sludge that will remain potentially lethal for thousands of years to come.
It may be safely secured now, but how to keep our descendants centuries in the future from accidentally unearthing it?
The resulting solution: an unprecedented and epic scale monument that’s expected to take the next three decades and as much as $1 billion to complete. “Basically, we just want to make sure society doesn’t forget we’re here,” says Roger Nelson, WIPP’s chief scientist.
The biggest problem is human greed. How will future people know we’re warning them for their own sake, and not just to keep crooks away from something extremely valuable buried there?
Don’t leave out human stupidity (remember the clever folks who dug this out of the ground, concentrated it, and turned it really nasty in the first place) and human evil (remember the clever folks who turned it into weapons).
For all we know, a future generation could find this site and think we worshipped spikes.
We’re not? *confused*
The same way humans have always learned about new dangers: the first fool who goes in comes out with his skin bubbling off, and everyone else screams “stay away”, and invent their own myths, symbols, whatever to warn people away.
I don’t know why this fascinates people so much. If there’s such a great catastrophic collapse of civilization such that people forget advanced technology, writing, science, etc., why are we worried about a few survivors who stumble on one of these sites?
First guy…”Hey what is that place?”
Second guy…”That is the place where people go an do not return.”
First guy…”I’m going in!”
——————————————————————————————-
First guy…”Hey what is that place?”
Second guy…”That is the place where people go an do not return.”
First guy…”I’m going in!”
And on and on….
Why not just load this stuff up into some sort of container and shoot it into space? Or the sun? Maybe I am just being stupid in assuming that the sun can consume anything and be alright.
What a stupid waste of money. I agree with Nathaniel. If civilization breaks down to the point where we forget all of human history has been forgotten I wouldn’t worry about the survivors “stumbling” on something a half mile underground.
Even if they did find it, they will find out it’s dangerous the same way we found out volcanoes are dangerous, by watching the firs few people inside die horrible deaths. Is this really worth a billion dollars to prevent? We could save the lives of quite a few people now with this money.
Human stupidity.
when they first decided to Bury this stuff, they decided they wanted containers that would last over 1000 years.
THEn they chaged and said 100+ years.
NOW I dont know what they want, but the Standard Half life(before it starts loosing MORE then its keeping in Atoms and degrades) is something in the realm of 15,000+ years depending on the material and its density.
Problems come from Water locations. How to bury something like this so that it wont contaminate water scources…Aquaducts, underground rivers, rain washing through, and OLD water ways, and dumping any of this into Our water scources. Which is almost impossible, as TIME kills all things. Look at Oregon, and its High desart area, It ONCE was a SEA.. there is NO place on this planet that dont get hit by water, small amount over a LONG time, or LARGE amounts once in 100 years. And WE want to plant this stuff, some place that Could/may/probably WILL flood some time in the future? We have to monitor it for the NEXT 10,000+ years…
But the Gov, wants to Bury it and keep it out of sight, and out of mind. It dont work that way. WE MADE THIS STUFF, and its our little BABY until it GOES AWAY.
I’ve seen the movies. The chimps and orangutans will try to warn the dumb gorillas, but they’ll go in anyway.
Those gorillas will deserve it too!
I agree. Complete waste of time and money.
Cap off the entrance to the tunnels with the hardest concrete mixed with some low level long half liferadioactive waste. If the future nincompoops that try to dig it up are advanced enough to dig out the super concrete, they should have geiger counters. If they aren’t that advanced, they won’t be able to dig out millions of tons of super hard concrete.
What I want to know is how are we going to dispose of all of the NUKE Power Plants that are starting to be decomissioned. And how are we going to make up the power production when they are all decommissioned in next 25 years. You think there is a power crunch now, HA. Just wait.
Don
I would guess that a future civilization that would find this “stuff” will be so radioactive to begin with they’ll be immune to any potential hazards.
I suspect that some politician’s kin folk are in the monument building business. We do not need a monument, except perhaps to honor our own stupidity. Any future society sharp enough to dig it up will be able to figure out what it is, and if they are not, well, maybe the next ones will be.
There is a way to make the Half life shorter..
Supposedly there are a few microbes that Love to eat this stuff…
Its like Rust on metal. It degrades it Alot faster. but no one is paying attention to those that want to use and test it.