The Magnox Swarf Storage Silo at Sellafield is one of the most hazardous buildings on the site and possibly anywhere in the world. After a 15 year development programme, the waste is finally being removed, bit by bit, out of the ageing, leaking building into yet another custom made (but ultimately also temporary) concrete storage facility.

No Cause For Alarm

A UK Government process is currently underway to find a site and willing community to host a deep geological disposal facility (GDF) in which to permanently store the UK's most active, high-level nuclear waste which has been created as a by-product of civil and military nuclear programmes over the last 70 years and counting. It is intended to be a consent-led process and four areas are currently involved in the early stages. Three community partnerships have formed in West Cumbria and one at Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire. Community Partnerships are eligible for government funding of up to £1 million annually, rising to £2.5 million if they progress to deep borehole investigations.

Future Present

There are 3 types of rock that may be suitable for hosting a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) for the long-term storage of the UK's high activity nuclear waste and the UK Government is currently looking for a suitable match and "willing" community to host a site.

Blind Date

This audio piece draws attention to the fact that the high activity nuclear waste intended for deep underground disposal is likely to remain radioactive for up to 100,000 years and so will be very much alive at the time of its ‘burial’.

Buried Alive

Community Engagement

An audio exhibit about the long-term disposal of radioactive waste and it's future archived records. The audio features heavily reprocessed sound recordings made along the perimeters of Sizewell B nuclear power station in Suffolk, Sellafield in West Cumbria (where most of the UK's radioactive waste currently resides)and Gare Loch in Scotland, gateway of the the UK's submarine-based nuclear deterrent.

Thinking Inside The Box - Archived Version

UK based multidisciplinary artist and self-appointed curator and artist in residence at the Nuclear Information Centre (NIC) for the next 4.3 billion years.

Nic Pehkonen