Into Eternity is a feature documentary film by Danish director Michael Madsen, released in 2010. It follows the plan to construct Onkalo Waste Repository deep underground, designed to last 100,000 years, at the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant on the island in the Baltic Sea called Olkiluoto, Finland. “Onkalo” is Finnish for “hiding place.”
The tunnel entrance to the waste repository has a length of 3 miles (5 km), and spirals downward to a depth of about 1,378 feet (420 meters), or about half the height of the world’s current record-holder for tallest building in the world. The inner part of the Scandinavian designed Russian doll-like storage canisters are composed of copper, tucked into bedrock, impervious to sinking permafrost, rising water, earthquakes, and copper-eating microbes. Hence, the case of Onkalo considers experiments on copper corrosion in running groundwater flow. Excavation on the project was commenced in 2004. A final decision on the license application is expected by the Finnish government in 2012.
“Into Eternity’s” director, Michael Madsen, is fascinated by [an imagined future so distant that it seems beyond the grasp of human cognition]. He frames the documentary as a direct message to beings living thousands of human generations in the future. In a series of interviews with prominent members of engineers and advisors from the nuclear authorities of Finland and Sweden, he raises some tough questions. For instance, how can contemporary humans prevent distant future generations of humans from entering Onkalo? Can we trust thousands of future generations to transmit warnings about the site, or are we better off encouraging them to forget its location? Even if these future beings can decipher the messages left at the site, will they dismiss them as myth – just as contemporary scientists dismiss runes and other symbols left by previous civilizations? Even these questions presuppose that the human species will exist long enough to guard these materials until they are no longer dangerous. Given the timescales involved, even this cannot be taken for granted. — Dr Audra Mitchell
Music by Kraftwerk. Buy the DVD here: http://shop.dogwoof.com/products/into-eternity
http://www.intoeternitythemovie.com/
Credit: Magic Hour Films
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I am continually floored by the magnitude of our destructive behavior, on an individual level and in the larger reality. The purpose of this beast is to confirm that our future “needs” are taken care of be it for consumption purposes, security or strong arm in the face of natural resource destruction, or the normal “day-to-day.” It is sad that we have been bred to believe in an unhealthy reality that has disconnected us so much from each other and the planet. True answers lie within ourselves and our behaviors. It is this consciousness that will trickle into all that we do. We tend to forget that there is always a person behind the curtain. My heart goes out to those who selflessly fight in the name of the larger we. But more so, my heart goes out to those whose eyes do not yet see that there is a present and future responsibility to the greater we. May they be blessed with sight.
Thanks for the quote. Great blog – will look forward to reading more of it!
Thanks for a great essay!
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