Long-term nuclear waste warning messages are communication attempts intended to deter human intrusion at nuclear waste repositories in the far future, within or above the order of magnitude of 10,000 years. Nuclear semiotics is an interdisciplinary field of research that aims to study and design optimal signage techniques and messages for this purpose; it was first established by the American Human Interference Task Force in 1981. A 1993 report from Sandia National Laboratories recommended that such messages be constructed at several levels of complexity. They suggested that the sites should include foreboding physical features which would immediately convey to future visitors that the site was both man-made and dangerous, as well as providing pictographic information attempting to convey some details of the danger, and written explanations for those able to read it.
Message A 1993 report from Sandia National Laboratories aimed to communicate a series of messages non-linguistically to any future visitors to a waste site. It gave the following wording as an example of what those messages should evoke:
This place is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it! Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture. This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here. What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger. The danger is in a particular location... it increases towards a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us. The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours. The danger is to the body, and it can kill. The form of the danger is an emanation of energy. The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.
The Sandia report further recommended that any such message should comprise four levels of increasing complexity:
Rudimentary information: "Something man-made is here" Cautionary information: "Something man-made is here and it is dangerous" Basic information: Tells what, why, when, where, who, and how Complex information: Highly detailed written records, tables, figures, graphs, maps and diagrams
Written messages
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has done extensive research in development of written or pictorial messages to warn future generations. Since today's written languages are unlikely to survive, the research team has considered pictograms and hostile architecture in addition to them. Texts were proposed to be translated to every UN written language. In 1994, Level II, III, and IV messages in English were translated into French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and Navajo, with plans to continue testing and revision of the original English text and subsequent eventual translation into further languages. Carl Sagan was invited to participate in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant panel to discuss the topic of nuclear semiotics, but could not attend due to a scheduling conflict. However, he still sent in his opinion in the form of a letter which suggested the use of the skull & crossbones symbol to dissuade trespassing by future civilizations.
Conceptual designs for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant included an "Information Center" at the geometric center of the site. The building would be an open structure of solid granite or concrete, measuring 40 by 32 by 10 feet (12.2 m × 9.8 m × 3.0 m), and contain Level IV messages. The plans included a suggestion that the building be designed so as to create a "dissonant and mournful" whistling sound when wind blew through it, acting as a Level I message. Working as part of the Human Interference Task Force in 1981, Vilmos Voigt from Eötvös–Loránd University (Budapest) proposed the installation of warning signs in the most important global languages in a concentric pattern around any terminal storage location. As time passed, further signs would be added translating the earlier signs, with the earlier ones remaining in place.
Physical markers
The Sandia report explored designs for physical markers which conveyed the concepts of dangerous emanations, shapes that evoke bodily harm, and the concept of "shunned land" that appears destroyed or poisoned. The named designs suggested included:
Landscape of Thorns A mass of many irregularly-sized spikes protruding from the ground in all directions. Spike Field A series of extremely large spikes emerging from the ground at different angles. Spikes Bursting Through Grid A large square grid pattern across the site, through which large spikes protrude at various angles. Leaning Stone Spikes 70 feet (21 m) tall and 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to 6.1 m) across at the base, at a slope of 1:14. Menacing Earthworks Large mounds of earth shaped like lightning bolts, emanating from the edges of a square site. The shapes would be strikingly visible from the air, or from artificial hills constructed around the site. Black Hole An enormous slab of basalt or black-dyed concrete, rendering the land uninhabitable and unfarmable. Rubble Landscape A large square-shaped pile of dynamited rock, which over time would still appear anomalous and give a sense of something having been destroyed. Forbidding Blocks A network of hundreds of house-sized stone blocks, dyed black and arranged in an irregular square grid, suggesting a network of "streets" which feel ominous and lead nowhere. The blocks are intended to make a large area entirely unsuitable for farming or other future use.
Cultural research To determine how to convey long-term nuclear warning messages, the Zeitschrift für Semiotik (Tübingen, Germany) issued a poll in 1982 and 1983 asking how a message might be communicated for a duration of 10,000 years. The poll asked the following question: "How would it be possible to inform our descendants for the next 10,000 years about the storage locations and dangers of radioactive waste?" leading to the following answers:
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