08: Deep Time

How do we prevent future generations from excavating the most dangerous material we have ever produced? Across the planet, there are hundreds of thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel that will be radioactive for—at the very least—tens of thousands of years. Some people have suggested launching it into outer space. Others have proposed sinking it into the ocean. The current solution, though, is to bury it underground. On the purported precipice of a "nuclear renaissance," the United States still has no plan whatsoever for managing our 90,000 existing tons of high-level nuclear waste. An underground storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada has completely stalled, and our existing deep geological repository, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, is only meant to secure transuranic waste from the weapons industry, not spent nuclear fuel. Finland thinks they've solved the conundrum with Onkalo, an underground tomb carved into their coastal bedrock. But can we trust countries like the United States or Russia to build such a facility, and not cut corners?  In this installment of Time Zero, you'll meet Rosemary A Joyce, an anthropologist, archaeologist, and author of "The Future of Nuclear Waste: What Art and Archaeology Can Tell Us about Securing the World's Most Hazardous Material" (2020). By looking at the nuclear waste problem through the lenses of deep time, the American land art movement, and a critique of cultural heritage common sense, Rosemary illuminates the detrimental assumptions and wicked problems that plague the nuclear industry.  Learn more, make a donation, or find a text-based version of today's program at: timezeropod.com.