Perpetual Architecture

[Image: A "disposal cell," also visible on Google Maps, courtesy of CLUI].

It's always welcome news around here when a new exhibition opens up at the Center for Land Use Interpretation—even though, in this case, it displaces the excellent historical look at U.S. federal surveying with the Initial Points: Anchors of America's Grid show.

On display now is Perpetual Architecture, which explores "uranium disposal cells in the southwest," constructed "primarily to contain radioactive contamination from decommissioned uranium mills and processing sites. They are time capsules, of sorts, designed to take their toxic contents, undisturbed, as far into the future as possible." More info, including visiting hours and location, is available at the CLUI website.

Meanwhile, those of you interested in this sort of thing might enjoy BLDGBLOG's earlier interview with Abraham van Luik, a geoscientist with the U.S. Department of Energy who described in great detail the process by which sites are chosen for the task of isolating nuclear waste over geological timescales.