image/jpeg | Jan 27, 2025 at 1:05 PM | 1 edition(s)

Yucca Flat in the Nevada Test Site (NTS) was the location for 827 nuclear detonations conducted by the US between 1951 and 1992. It is "the most irradiated, nuclear-blasted spot on the face of the earth". The mesh of circular subsidence craters from underground tests is visible in its topography and satellite mapping, scars arrayed in their hundreds in the 400 square km basin. The 74 kiloton ‘Hood’ in 1957 was detonated there, the largest atmospheric test ever conducted in the continental US at 5 times the size of the Hiroshima bomb. The 1970 underground ‘Baneberry’ 10-kiloton test was classified as “one of the world's worst nuclear disasters”, causing radiation exposure of 86 NTS site workers and extensive fallout across the US and into Canada. The 104 kT thermonuclear ‘Sedan’ test in 1962 blasted a 100 m deep, almost 400 m diameter crater: the radioactive fallout contaminated more than 13 million people in the US. Sustained local protests and pressure from international treaties halted US nuclear weapons testing in 1992. But this interregnum may not last - the international arms control architecture that has largely kept nuclear testing in check for 3 decades is now becoming less and less certain. The rise of geo-political tensions and/or the collapse of arms control agreements could lead to a resumption of nuclear testing, which would precipitate a potentially catastrophic arms race. This piece is assembled from satellite and aerial mapping, and topographical contouring, with varying physical and digital treatments of both primary and waste material. The found and processed natural sounds contain personal significance, while referencing 2005 indigenous protests over the use and contamination of the Nevada Test Site. ----- sources: Google Earth, Landsat / Copernicus, Airbus, Maxar ----- mp4 | 1920 x 1080px | 1:38 | 227 Meg ----- twitter.com/stusontier | instagram.com/stusontierphoto | instagram.com/a.i.gardening