Plutonium to Purpose: A Transparent Nuclear System
Plutonium To Purpose represents a thesis construct that’s grounded within key concepts established by Kees Lokman’s Cyborg Landscapes combined with real-world reflections found within growing energy & waste demands. With a shifting trend towards AI automation, nuclear energy is being viewed as a last-ditch attempt to combat the growing energy demands in an already bleak supply landscape. However, could our salvation lie in the ‘waste’ we left behind from our nuclear past?
Equally significant are the challenges posed by public perception and the often stigmatised language associated with the term ‘nuclear.’ Decades of cultural fear, geopolitical tensions and historical errors have established deep-rooted scepticism – One that frames nuclear energy as a threat, not a solution. Yet for the small Cumbrian coastal town of Whitehaven, the proximity of nuclear operations at Sellafield has foundationally positioned local inhabitants within a complex relationship, in which the nuclear legacy sits as both a source of economic security and environmental concern. This duality presents a key opportunity for reinterpreting how we approach nuclear ‘waste’— not as a problem to be buried, but as a material of possibility.
Plutonium To Purpose seeks to blur the lines between public and private realms, offering performative insight that challenges and reframes how the nuclear narrative is engaged. Through leveraging the system as a critical medium, this thesis proposes new methods of seeing – where waste is no longer relegated to the margins or buried out of sight but repurposed as a key contributor to cultural dialogue, systemic change and spatial reinvention with the encompassing aim of dismantling the nuclear stigma.
