Geography magazine reported that last week, after the US Senate passed the plan to build a permanent nuclear waste landfill in Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the matter entered the stage of license application and procedure approval. An important condition for obtaining the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency is to develop an early warning system to remind people that the nuclear waste piled here contains a lot of extremely dangerous radioactive substances. The service life of this early warning system should reach 1 10,000 years.
It is not easy to develop an early warning system that can last for 6,543,800 years. You know, the world has been changing. Think about it: 1 10,000 years ago, the Sahara desert was still a fertile savanna; At that time, humans had just put down their hunting gear and considered how to grow crops. So, who can imagine what the world will be like in 1 100 million years? According to some scientists' prediction, after 654.38 million years, there will probably be aliens living on the earth.
In fact, as early as 10 years ago, the US Department of Energy began to study a similar system, but it was developed for the nuclear waste isolation test site in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The Department of Energy consulted a large number of futurists, archaeologists, materials experts, astronauts and other relevant personnel, and set up two expert groups with the task of establishing an overall framework for this system.
The group submitted a research report to the Ministry of Energy on 1996. Trout, the main drafter of the report and an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Missouri-Columbia University, said: "The biggest obstacle encountered by these two groups is that we don't know what will happen in the future." It is reported that after studying many ancient relics, including the Aztec obelisk, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and North American indigenous murals, these two groups are increasingly aware of the difficulties they are facing.
First of all, after 1 million years, the inhabitants of the earth may not speak or even have heard of the language currently used by human beings.
Secondly, what kind of warning signs should be built? Obelisks and other forms of monuments are usually used to commemorate a place or an event, which is far from the meaning of "away". But it is not appropriate to use exaggerated methods, such as writing "touch the stone to death" and so on. Two research teams said, "There will definitely be an investigation here. If they touch the warning sign, but they are safe, then they probably didn't notice the danger warning at all. "
Moreover, it is not feasible to keep people away by setting something scary. In order to prevent the attack of grave robbers, the ancients once designed various evil spirits as protectors, but the things in the tomb are still not spared, even those protectors.
Not only that, but whether the materials needed to build this system can be found is also a problem. Because all materials must be particularly durable, even if the climate changes dramatically, these materials will not be affected in any way. Not only that, these materials can not be recycled, nor can they be too expensive, so as not to attract the attention of thieves.
Trout, head of the research project, said, "We set up two groups to find more methods. Interestingly, the research results of the two groups have a lot in common: they all think that multi-level languages, multiple communication methods and multiple materials should be used. " Some of the ideas of these two organizations are obviously aimed at intimidating potential intruders, but they did not submit these ideas to the Department of Energy.
The current design sketches of the US Department of Energy are relatively less vivid than these research ideas. According to the existing sketch of the Ministry of Energy, a protective wall with a height of10m and a width of 30m should be enclosed around the nuclear waste landfill. There are all kinds of granite stone tablets, signs and information boards in the wall, which contain all kinds of warning information. The simplest one is a screaming face, while the complex one contains high-tech information. These technical information will be expressed in seven languages: Navajo, the largest Indian tribe in the United States, and the six official languages commonly used by the United Nations-English, Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese and Arabic.
In order to prevent some accidents from causing serious damage to these warning signs, these warning signs will be copied and placed in two basements, one in the retaining wall and the other outside the retaining wall.
Of course, all this information can't completely stop intentional intruders. Roger nilsen, chief scientist of the waste isolation test site, pointed out: "The warning system is to prevent people from digging and mining here unintentionally. These signs are for honest people. We can't predict the cultural and social situation after 1 10,000 years, but we can predict the possible mistakes made by human beings. The only way to stop those who plan evil is to send people on duty day and night-send a large number of police to surround this place. "
At present, the research team is in no hurry to deploy such a system. Roger nilsen said, "It is expected that the Carlsbad proving ground will be officially closed in 2033, and we will continue to monitor it in the next 100." Only then will the early warning system be formally deployed. "Therefore, we have enough time to test the durability of new materials and study how to carve the logo. The time left for Fu Yunru is longer. "