Uranium Decay

In his essay, Unknown Quantity, Paul Virilioproposes a Major Accident Museum, not to spread fear but to definitively admit that accidents are cumulative realities not chance events. Exposing and exhibiting the accident, catastrophe or disaster, we are made aware of the indirect production of science and techno-science, as a responsibility to future generations. We can begin to do so by overcoming our cultural anxiety and denial of the hazards of that invisible “unknown quantity”: radioactivity.

The video Uranium Decay draws attention to the dark, inverse form of alchemy of the Atomic Age. Responding to the ongoing Fukushima meltdowns the video illuminates the 4.47 billion-year half-life decay cycle of uranium-238 superimposed onto thermographs and news footage. As uranium decays over geological time, it transmutes into “uranium daughters” that cascade into other elements and finally to stable Lead-206. As we are learning post-Fukushima, when climate change occurs and vulnerability spectrums shift, nuclear sites and the life forms surrounding them are at increased risk.

Link to video http://vimeo.com/32589863

Wed, Oct 17, 2012  Permanent link

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