Nuclear Information Centre
Audio Entanglements.
Follow the links below to explore current NIC audio exhibits.
☢️️ Great British Nuclear Waste (2024) - [Duration 4m 46s]
Exploring the sonic porosity of “the UK’s most complex and challenging nuclear site” (National Audit Office) through a collection of recorded sounds offered up by Sellafield during a partial perimeter walk in September 2022. We demand ever more energy but are we going forwards or backwards by continuing to pursue nuclear fission power generation in the UK with the inevitable increase in our stockpile of Great British Nuclear Waste and its long-term economic and environmental costs?
☢️️ Sizewell Trees (2023) - [Duration 2m 37s]
Creaking trees, deep in conversation in the woods around Sizewell.
It seems there’s something in the wind
and clearly lots to talk about...
☢️️ Nuclear Alphabet Soup (2023) - [5 x recipies, each around 0m 30s duration, looped]
A selection of highly alphabetic ingredients discovered in overflowing civil and military store cupboards, combining to create a less than delicious audio-textual radioactive broth. A recipe very much engineered to be passed down through the generations.
☢️️ Future Present (2022) - [Duration 2m 39s]
☢️️ Safety Training - updated version (2022) - [Duration 4m 31s]
☢️️ No Cause for Alarm (2022) - [Duration 5m 0s]
The Sellafield site contains some of the most radiologically hazardous buildings in Europe, if not the world. Inside these buildings regular “confidence tones” constantly play out to demonstrate the health of the alarm system and to offer reassurances that it will function as intended in case of a genuine on-site nuclear emergency.
☢️️ Sound Reprocessing Plant (2022) - [Duration 6m 42s]
A reworking of a Sellafield Ltd video released by the company in July 2022 to mark the closure of its Magnox Fuel Reprocessing Plant after work was completed on the last and final shipment of spent fuel from the UK’s legacy Magnox nuclear power stations. Like the Magnox and other types of spent nuclear fuel reprocessed at Sellafield over the years, the original audio recording accompanying this video has been broken up, electronically dissolved, and reassembled, with unused sections becoming audio waste.
☢️️ Neither Confirm Nor Deny (2022) - [Duration 4m 33s]
☢️️ Thinking Inside the Box or Waste Streams (2022) - [Duration 2m 44s, looped and 14m 42s, looped]
What is radioactive waste and how do we manage it? Do we tend to think of it from our position as energy producers and consumers; the inevitable end product of the nuclear fuel cycle and an engineering problem to be solved through highly shielded infrastructure and robust safety cases? Do we ever consider it in terms of the ongoing and enduring legacies of uranium mining, atomic testing and unplanned radiological releases which are not so tidily managed or contained?
☢️️ Making it Happen (2022) - [Duration 4m 15s]
Featuring more sounds from Sellafield where most of the UK’s high-level radioactive waste currently resides, this piece also forefronts edited audio from a 2013 Nuclear Decommissioning Authority public information video (UK nuclear waste - today's vision for tomorrow's peace of mind) which explains how we can solve the radioactive waste problem by building a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) in which to bury it. “We all need to work together to make this happen.”
☢️️ Inspired by Nuclear Waste Services (2022) - [Duration 2m 30s]
☢️️ When you hear this sound (2022) - [Duration 3m 24s]
Although not made explicit, this piece comprises 260 overlayed repetitions of a section from the Sellafield site alarm information hotline, as well as exploring some blurred infrastructural and topographical boundaries between the UK’s civil and military nuclear activities. The number 260 is important because it marks the limit on the number of active nuclear warheads the UK may maintain at any given time. Although this is significantly lower than the total number held during the Cold War, it represents the first increase to potential warhead numbers for several decades..
Exploring the sonic porosity of “the UK’s most complex and challenging nuclear site” (National Audit Office) through a collection of recorded sounds offered up by Sellafield during a partial perimeter walk in September 2022. We demand ever more energy but are we going forwards or backwards by continuing to pursue nuclear fission power generation in the UK with the inevitable increase in our stockpile of Great British Nuclear Waste and its long-term economic and environmental costs?
☢️️ Sizewell Trees (2023) - [Duration 2m 37s]
Creaking trees, deep in conversation in the woods around Sizewell.
It seems there’s something in the wind
and clearly lots to talk about...
☢️️ Nuclear Alphabet Soup (2023) - [5 x recipies, each around 0m 30s duration, looped]
A selection of highly alphabetic ingredients discovered in overflowing civil and military store cupboards, combining to create a less than delicious audio-textual radioactive broth. A recipe very much engineered to be passed down through the generations.
☢️️ Future Present (2022) - [Duration 2m 39s]
☢️️ Safety Training - updated version (2022) - [Duration 4m 31s]
☢️️ No Cause for Alarm (2022) - [Duration 5m 0s]
The Sellafield site contains some of the most radiologically hazardous buildings in Europe, if not the world. Inside these buildings regular “confidence tones” constantly play out to demonstrate the health of the alarm system and to offer reassurances that it will function as intended in case of a genuine on-site nuclear emergency.
☢️️ Sound Reprocessing Plant (2022) - [Duration 6m 42s]
A reworking of a Sellafield Ltd video released by the company in July 2022 to mark the closure of its Magnox Fuel Reprocessing Plant after work was completed on the last and final shipment of spent fuel from the UK’s legacy Magnox nuclear power stations. Like the Magnox and other types of spent nuclear fuel reprocessed at Sellafield over the years, the original audio recording accompanying this video has been broken up, electronically dissolved, and reassembled, with unused sections becoming audio waste.
☢️️ Neither Confirm Nor Deny (2022) - [Duration 4m 33s]
☢️️ Thinking Inside the Box or Waste Streams (2022) - [Duration 2m 44s, looped and 14m 42s, looped]
What is radioactive waste and how do we manage it? Do we tend to think of it from our position as energy producers and consumers; the inevitable end product of the nuclear fuel cycle and an engineering problem to be solved through highly shielded infrastructure and robust safety cases? Do we ever consider it in terms of the ongoing and enduring legacies of uranium mining, atomic testing and unplanned radiological releases which are not so tidily managed or contained?
☢️️ Making it Happen (2022) - [Duration 4m 15s]
Featuring more sounds from Sellafield where most of the UK’s high-level radioactive waste currently resides, this piece also forefronts edited audio from a 2013 Nuclear Decommissioning Authority public information video (UK nuclear waste - today's vision for tomorrow's peace of mind) which explains how we can solve the radioactive waste problem by building a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) in which to bury it. “We all need to work together to make this happen.”
☢️️ Inspired by Nuclear Waste Services (2022) - [Duration 2m 30s]
☢️️ When you hear this sound (2022) - [Duration 3m 24s]
Although not made explicit, this piece comprises 260 overlayed repetitions of a section from the Sellafield site alarm information hotline, as well as exploring some blurred infrastructural and topographical boundaries between the UK’s civil and military nuclear activities. The number 260 is important because it marks the limit on the number of active nuclear warheads the UK may maintain at any given time. Although this is significantly lower than the total number held during the Cold War, it represents the first increase to potential warhead numbers for several decades..
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