These Days > Design Cartel Kancheli, Giya Kane Roberts Kangding Ray

We’re on the science tip today! This image here could have been a cool design for some fancy client. But it’s not. It’s a real picture. What we’re seeing here are stainless-steel nuclear-waste capsules containing radioactive material. They are submerged into water. The water serves as a shield against the radiation emitted.

Nearly 2,000 capsules reside at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State, which is considered among the most contaminated waste sites in the United States. The blue glow comes from an effect called Cherenkov radiation.