The Attempt to Send a Message 10,000 Years Into the Future
The US Department of Energy’s attempts to communicate with future civilizations were anything but successful
“This place is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here. Nothing valued is here. What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us… This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.”
In 1990, a team of geologists, linguists, scientists, and archaeologists suggested etching these words into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Their goal was to warn that the nuclear waste storage facility should never, ever, ever be opened.
Once WIPP has been deemed stable, it will be sealed and abandoned. The nuclear sludge it contains will become a permanent part of the Earth’s crust. Years will turn into centuries, cultures will rise and fall, and every language we currently speak will be completely forgotten.
But still, WIPP will remain highly radioactive. For this reason, a panel was formed to ensure that future generations are warned against disturbing the radioactive waste for at least 10,000 years — in other words, forever.
