Uranium Mining Legacy

The scenes in these images simultaneously reflect our fears, worries, curiosity and fascination over the legacy of uranium mining. In this project, the images are drawn from the real past and an imagined future of uranium mining in the American Southwest: the massive clean up of uranium mill tailings in Moab, Utah; an abandoned uranium mine near Cameron, Arizona; uranium prospecting by lay people, popular during the late 1950s and early 1960s; a hypothetical transformation of traditional herding practices; and imagined solutions for burying radioactive waste and the problems of communicating the dangers of these toxic sites for more than 10,000 years into the future. A postcard rack accompanies the large-scale photographs, conjuring a form of dark tourism spawned from the legacy of uranium mining. The postcards offer an image that travels beyond these scenes in an exhibition.

Moab Mine Clean Up

In 2009, the federally funded Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project began cleaning up waste tailings from the mills of the Uranium Reduction Company that operated from 1956 until 1962, when it was sold to the Atlas Minerals Corporation. Atlas continued processing uranium ore until 1984. Both operations resulted in a 130-acre pile of radioactive tailings. Next to the Colorado River, toxins and contaminants from the tailings pile eventually leaked into the river. The Department of Energy cleanup plan includes moving the tailings in railcars to a disposal site near Crescent Junction, Utah. The project is estimated to continue past the year 2030 and costs are estimated at about $1 billion.

Ghost Mine

The abandoned uranium mine near Cameron, AZ still has no posted danger signs warning of high radioactivity. The Environmental Protection Agency took Geiger counter readings in 2010 that “buried the needles on their equipment,” reported The New York Times in 2012. Two days at this place would “expose a person to more external radiation the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers safe for an entire year.”

Prospectors

By the mid-1950s, the United States Atomic Energy Commission started building roads into regions of the Southwest that held promise for uranium and offered $10,000 cash bonuses for anyone locating large deposits. This prompted a government-sponsored “Uranium Rush,” motivating locals and others to start prospecting in hopes of making their fortunes.

Hazmat Shepherd

Sheep, raised for meat and wool, have long been a part of Navajo culture. Since mutton is a staple of the Navajo diet, food chain contamination is a concern as elevated levels of uranium have been detected in livestock that drink water and graze in areas impacted by uranium mining.

Spike Field

Radioactive waste sites must be identifiable for tens of thousands of years into the future and marked as places that people should avoid at all costs. This may mean creating a symbolic site that transcends any particular language or culture. The idea of a “Spike Field” is one scenario aiming to create a threatening and chaotic landscape that communicates danger as spikes erratically puncture the earth. Ironically, while the intent of these shapes is to signal harm and peril, they may also be potential sites of curiosity that encourage visitors to seek them out. This image is based on a speculative concept by Michael Brill found in a 1992 report, “Marking the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for 10,000 Years,” prepared for the US Department of Energy.

Black Slab

Radioactive waste sites must be identifiable for tens of thousands of years into the future and marked as places that people should avoid at all costs. This may mean creating a symbolic site that transcends any particular language or culture. The idea of a “Black Hole” is to create a place that appears ugly, uninhabitable and uncomfortable. The large black slab absorbs and radiates the desert heat. The objective is to create the impression of a void in the landscape, a place that is good for nothing. Although the intent of this design may be to communicate an unusable and shunned landscape, it may also hold aesthetic interest similar to contemporary earthworks sculpture and, ironically, may encourage people to visit. This image is based on a speculative concept by Michael Brill found in a 1992 report, “Marking the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for 10,000 Years,” prepared for the US Department of Energy.

Moab Mine II Clean Up

About 3 miles northwest of Moab, Utah the federally funded Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project encompasses approximately 480 acres. About 130 of those acres were covered by a uranium mill tailings pile produced by the Uranium Reduction Company and the Atlas Minerals Corporation between 1956 and 1984. In 2009, the UMTRA project began a cleanup that includes moving the tailings in railcars to a disposal site near Crescent Junction, Utah. The project is estimated to continue past the year 2030 and costs are estimated at about $1 billion.

Prospectors II

A “Uranium Rush” in the American Southwest, larger than the Gold Rush of 1849, was underway by the mid-1950s. Popular magazines highlighted uranium prospecting as a hobby that could result in large cash bonuses paid out by the United States Atomic Energy Commission to anyone who discovered large deposits of uranium.

Black Slab II

Radioactive waste sites must be identifiable for tens of thousands of years into the future and marked as places that people should avoid at all costs. This may mean creating a symbolic site that transcends any particular language or culture. The idea of a “Black Hole” is to create a place that appears ugly, uninhabitable and uncomfortable. The large black slab absorbs and radiates the desert heat. The objective is to create the impression of a void in the landscape, a place that is good for nothing. Although the intent of this design may be to communicate an unusable and shunned landscape, it may also hold aesthetic interest similar to contemporary earthworks sculpture and, ironically, may encourage people to visit. This image is based on a speculative concept by Michael Brill found in a 1992 report, “Marking the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for 10,000 Years,” prepared for the US Department of Energy.

Postcards

A postcard rack accompanies the large-scale photographs, conjuring a form of dark tourism spawned from the legacy of uranium mining. The postcards offer an image that travels beyond these scenes in an exhibition.