There is one thing I know of that really does not seem like it wants to reincarnate: Nuclear waste. How on earth do we quarantine a hazardous material for more than one million years? The “solution” is nothing less than otherworldly – except that it IS on our world, and that is a bit disconcerting.

If you haven’t heard of it, you’ll be amazed when you learn about the nuclear waste-entombment site proposed for Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

The tunnel boring machine

Resembling some new breed of Stargate emerging from the Earth, the tunnel-boring machine at Yucca Mountain reaches daylight; Courtesy of the Department of Energy

One Million Years of Isolation: An Interview with Abraham Van Luik

Abraham Van Luik is a geoscientist with the U.S. Department of Energy; he is currently based at the nuclear waste-entombment site proposed for Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Yucca Mountain, a massive landform created by an extinct supervolcano inside what is now Nellis Air Force Base’s Nevada Test and Training Range, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the controversial site chosen by Congress for the storage of nuclear waste. Its political fate remains uncertain. Although the Obama Administration has stated that Yucca Mountain is “no longer… an option for storing nuclear waste,” Congress has since voted to continue funding the project—albeit only with enough funds to allow the licensing process to continue…

Click here for the interview. Click here for an incredible diagram of the site.

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