Permanent Disposal of Nuclear Waste
The large-scale testing of the atomic bomb in 1950 has left radioactive elements that could send strong, traceable chemical signals into our atmosphere for millennia.
The large-scale testing of the atomic bomb in 1950 has left radioactive elements that could send strong, traceable chemical signals into our atmosphere for millennia.
This film examines the limitations and contradictions of finding safe places for nuclear waste storage.
Shannon Cram explores the slippery subjectivities of nuclear waste and nature at Washington State’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation, examining how this space is framed as both pristine habitat and waste frontier. She examines Hanford’s biological vector control program through the fruit fly and discusses how vector control uses instances of nuclear trespass to articulate the boundary between contaminated and uncontaminated. She concludes that nature is being recruited to do what the U.S. Department of Energy cannot: solve Hanford’s nuclear waste problem.
Jennifer Clapp examines the nature of international trade in toxic waste and the roles of multinational corporations and environmental NGOs. Waste transfer has become a routine practice for firms in industrialized countries and poor countries accept these imports but struggle to manage the materials safely. She argues that governments have failed to recognize the voices of protest.
Stefan Skrimshire considers the ethical question of how to communicate with future human societies in terms of long-term disposal of radioactive fuel. He proposes that the confessional form (as propagated by Saint Augustine and critiqued by Derrida) may become increasingly pertinent to activists, artists, and faith communities making sense of humanity’s ethical commitments in deep time.
This chapter from the virtual exhibition “The Life of Waste” discusses the origins of waste, our methods of consumption and the consequent production of waste, and how we learn to waste.
This chapter from the virtual exhibition “The Life of Waste” sheds light on what people think waste is and is not, the cultural and normative conceptions of waste, and forms and landscapes of waste.
This chapter from the virtual exhibition “The Life of Waste” considers the myriad practices of managing waste, such as burning, burying, discarding, disposal, reuse, and recycling.
This chapter from the virtual exhibition “The Life of Waste” highlights people who live with waste—landfill workers, waste pickers, trash collectors, sanitation workers—and the social, economic, and health challenges they face.
This chapter from the virtual exhibition “The Life of Waste” discusses the call for radical changes in our consumption and production patterns, and littering behavior. It explores the concepts of zero waste, upcycling, and recycling.