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Protecting Unexposed Film from Cosmic Radiation?
iblink asks: "Last year Fujifilm stopped producing a color slide E-6 sheet film called Velvia 50. It has unique color characteristics that I love so I decided to purchase the remaining stocks in Europe. I now have hundreds of boxes that need to be stored for up to thirty years. A number of film experts assured me that freezing the Velvia would stabilize the dyes for long term use. However, they all mentioned that cosmic radiation would eventually fog the film, and they offered little help in finding a relatively inexpensive barrier. I found various ideas on proton cosmic radiation barriers — a big bucket of water, lead, certain plastics — but nothing convincing or sufficiently detailed (which plastic? How thick?). The film is currently in a freezer, unprotected. Any ideas?"
I think that I should warn you that everything eventually decays. Nothing lasts forever. And film, just like fruit, is best served fresh. If you really want to continue using Velvia in, say 600 years, I would recommend that you try to come up with some way of getting it fresh in the future. Just because Fuji stopped producing it, shouldn't mean that they won't be able to produce a small batch of it (at ridiculous high prices) if you make a special order. A different option, is to simply ask for the "recipe" (possibly by signing an NDA or similar contract), and get an independent laboratory to produce it when you need it. The last (and the only sane) option, is to try to find something else that fits your need. Such as analysing sample pictures, and coming up with a photoshop color filter that does the same thing.
If you are concerned about being able to use Velvia film in the long term, it might be easier and cheaper to get together with other like-minded folk and find a cheap contracting manufacturer somewhere like China or India who can copy the Velvia manufacturing process (if they bother follow licensing protocols...) to provide a supply of fresh film.
The cosmic radiation in question has enough energy to travel across the galaxy, blast through several kilometres of atmosphere, penetrate your building's roof and walls and then punch through the box holding your film before actually interacting with the film. Seems unlikely that you'll be able to do much more to keep the film fresh.
Did you also happen to buy and store a 30-years-worth supply of chemicals (and a processing machine) for E-6?
This is because you don't grow nearly as much corn up in canada, and subsequently you didn't have a corn lobby to lobby for tarriffs on outside sugar. Fucking corn lobby.