A speculative product design: in a post-uranium nuclear future, widespread use of safer thorium-232 allows radioactive waste storage to shift from the present-day centralized depository paradigm toward a distributed model. Rather than incorporate waste remediation costs into electricity pricing, thorium utilities allow customers to defray these costs by storing waste in their own living rooms. Transformed into consumer goods, these tabletop waste sarcophaguses allow individuals to take responsibility for (or show off) their own energy consumption. The sarcophagus display reads out ambient radiation levels in microsieverts and the years remaining before the waste inside decays to a non-radioactive state.
