Taryn Simon, photo and text, from her American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar: contaminated ground in watery blue light. Always nice to see how the Evergreen State strikes artists from elsewhere. (Bio from Gagosian.)
Nuclear Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility Cherenkov Radiation
Hanford Site, U.S. Department of Energy
Southeastern Washington State.
Submerged
in a pool of water at Hanford Site are 1,936 stainless-steel
nuclear-waste capsules containing cesium and strontium. Combined, they
contain over 120 million curies of radioactivity. It is estimated to be the most curies under one roof in the United States.
The blue glow is created by the Cherenkov Effect which describes the
electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle, giving off
energy, moves faster than light through a transparent medium. The
temperatures of the capsules are as high as 330 degrees Fahrenheit. The
pool of water serves as a shield against radiation; a human standing
one foot from an unshielded capsule would receive a lethal dose of
radiation in less than 10 seconds. Hanford is among the most contaminated sites in the United States.
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