Nuclear Information Centre.




Buried Alive (2024). (Duration 5m 02s)
NIC/GD/012



A geological disposal facility (GDF) is frequently referred to as being a passive engineering solution or passive disposal environment, utilising a series of natural and engineered barriers to isolate and contain high-activity nuclear waste deep underground. However, spent nuclear fuel and other packaged wasteforms that enter a GDF will be highly radioactive to varying degrees and will remain so for many years, in some ways very much alive; interred deep within the bedrock, encased in thick-walled copper or steel canister shaped coffins surrounded by layers of bentonite clay.

The highly engineered sounds you can hear in this piece have been heavily reprocessed from a recording of the artist playing a 3m length of copper pipe.

Information last updated -  Sun 15 Sep 2024

Back