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…