Nuclear waste can be harmful for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. How can people today even imagine what society will be like over those types of time periods? And more importantly, how can we make sure that future generations don’t forget nuclear waste’s dangers, and start digging around in the waste sites we are setting aside today?

In Containment, a film that airs today on PBS’s Independent Lens, scientists and thinkers show just how hard it is to plan for an unknown future. In this clip, get a look inside the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant outside Carlsbad, New Mexico, a site that just began accepting nuclear waste this month for the first time in three years.

For more, visit Independent Lens.