Nuclear Culture Deep Geologic Repository Exploratory Workshop

The Nuclear Culture Deep Geologic Repository Workshop will bring together artists and researchers in Nuclear Cultural Heritage to expand the Deep Time discourse of deep geological repositories (DGR) to consider their colonial matieral geopolitics within a contemporary decolonial context.

This unique opportunity will enable new ways of thinking about the role of arts practice-based research in marking radioactive waste sites for future generations.

This will include field-research at Finland’s Onkalo geologic disposal facility for high level radioactive waste currently under construction at Olkiluoto in Eurajoki and managed by Posiva; and Sweden’s Final Repository for Short-lived radioactive waste at Forsmark, Östhammar, managed by SKB.European Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) programs have been supporting cultural work in this field for several years and have established certain cultural and aesthetic tropes which will be explored from a wider critical and decolonial perspective.

This workshop grant will bring together experienced researchers in the field of nuclear culture and heritage to undertake primary field research at Onkalo in 2024 and Forsmark in 2025 to enable new paradigm shifts in the discourse.

The experience of the site visits will be consolidated and evaluated through 2 open workshops to develop research frameworks for new conceptual understandings of the repository project which will be disseminated through co-authored papers, artworks and exhibitions.