Nic Pehkonen

Since 2018, a consent-based, UK government funded process is underway to find a suitable site and willing community in England or Wales to host a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) for the permanent containment of the UK’s high activity radioactive waste, deep underground.

To date, four Community Partnerships have formed (three in West Cumbria and one in Lincolnshire) which will exist until such time as they either withdraw from the process or a suitable site is eventually found, and a test of local public support has been passed.

As part of their ongoing public information programme, the Theddlethorpe GDF Community Partnership in Lincolnshire published a handy, pocket-sized, foldout infographic leaflet which contained the following statement: “In all, about 750,000m3 of radioactive waste is destined for disposal in a GDF: the equivalent of a football-sized amount for each person in the UK”.

In this exhibit, each Nuclear Football operates both as a metaphor for your own personal radioactive waste allocation and an existing GDF Community Partnership. Although partially constrained by their respective netting bags, the footballs themselves are inherently free roaming objects and as such echo the geological, sociological, and political uncertainties bound up within the ongoing GDF siting process.