OUT OF THE GROUND, INTO THE GROUND
Out of the ground, into the ground: Herausforderung atomares Erbe
Grit Ruhland (Künstlerin) und Robert Jacobs (Nuklearhistoriker)
ATOMARES ERBE: EIN GESPRÄCH AUS KUNST UND WISSENSCHAFT
Moderation: Katja Matthias
Die Zoom-Diskussion vom 4.12. wurde aufgezeichnet. Es war eine bereichernde Diskussion, die wir gerne teilen.
Wie warnt man eine Generation in 100.000 Jahren vor unseren nuklearen Hinterlassenschaften, tief verborgen an ihren Endlagerstätten, vielleicht längst unsichtbar und vergessen? Nicht nur der Klimawandel, auch der Atommüll illustriert, wie langfristig, unabsehbar und katastrophal die Auswirkungen unseres heutigen Umgangs mit Technologie, Ressourcen und Umwelt sind. Robert Jacobs und Grit Ruhland sprechen über die Rolle und Verantwortung von Kunst und Wissenschaft.
Grit Ruhland ist Künstlerin, in der Ausstellung Redraw Tragedy zeigt sie ihre Installationen. Grit Ruhland studierte an der HfBK Dresden Skulptur- und Raumkonzepte. Sie promovierte an der Bauhaus Universität Weimar über “FOLGELANDSCHAFT. Eine Untersuchung der Auswirkungen des Uranbergbaus auf die Landschaft um Gera/Ronneburg.”
Der Nuklearhistoriker Robert Jacobs lehrt und forscht am Hiroshima Peace Institute (Hiroshima City University) in Japan. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte umfassen Globale Geschichte und Kultur der Nukleartechnologien, Strahlungstechnopolitik, Anthropozän-Studien, Globaler Kalter Krieg, Hibakusha-Studien, Militärkolonialismus und nukleare postkoloniale Studien. Sein neues Buch erscheint 2022 “Nuclear bodies: the global hibakusha.“.
Links zum Thema:
Dissertation von Grit Ruhland
https://e-pub.uni-weimar.de/opus4/frontdoor/index/index/docId/4495
Artikel von Bo Jacobs
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333617931_Born_Violent_The_Origins_of_Nuclear_Power
Homepage of Bo (with a lot more articles on the topic)
https://hiroshima-cu.academia.edu/RobertJacobs
Homepage of Grit
https://www.eintagsfliegenakrobatik.de/
Chat Content (in Englisch)
Nico : Greetings from the Antipodes! It is passing midnight here so I might have to sign out shortly. Thanks for making this interdisciplinary dialogue happen.
Guenter: There is a lot of information on a scientific level by the Federal Agency for Radiation Protection / BfS – but it is very difficult to read and understand
D – NIRS : What kind of radiation detector is good at detecting uranium ? I have a Radalert and an Inspector (by International Medcom), like what the Safecast network uses in Japan and worldwide and they don’t seem to show uranium even though they have Alpha/Windows
Guenter: as fas as I understand as a non-physicist is that it takes more than a Geiger counter to identify uranium – AND uranium never comes alone, it is always accompanied by its decay products which makes it more difficult to identify uranium in a natural setting
Christian – IMWA : There is no „Uranium“ detector that you could simpl purchase. It needs an expensive device that measures the energy of the radiation and based on that it could be analysed.
You could use also ICP or wet analysis.
Janice : It seems that the language of words like heritage and inheritance often have positive connotations that don’t seem to capture the toxic and perpetual nature of nuclear waste. And for people who use Geiger counters and such instruments to be called radiophobes makes them sound like eccentric outsiders and I would consider them logical and rational. Language is cultural and can be used for manipulation.
Guenter: I think Grit’s accomplishment is, for one part, to connect the scientific / physicist ‚stuff‘ with culture, art and take a completely different approach to the pro-/anti-nuclear fight
Guenter : The nuclear industry is pushing and lobbying VER HARD to get nuclear power accepted as a ‚saviour‘ from climate change inmpacts
Janice : I wish my politicians thought like Grit and Bo.
Guenter : currently, FRANCE is pushing hard to get nuclear adopted int the EU taxonomy – and get labeled as green and sustainable
D – NIRS : IN the US medical waste is a minute fraction of the human made radioactive waste and most is very short lasting. Medicine which is more societally acceptable is used to justify dumps and higher legal release levels
Miya: I find nuclear issue is so deeply intricate in many aspects of our society
not only in energy, weapon, but also in space development, science studies, medical industry, a part of production process of green energy, or a new structure of chocolate… so, I realised it does not simply help to take a position pro or anti-nuclear… This makes me more difficult to how to tuckle the issue
Janice : I agree. I really admire Germany for moving away from nuclear and showing it is possible.
Guenter: thanks from Germany … but it is still a hard fight
D – NIRS : Hoodwinked in the HotHouse Resist False Solutions to Climate Change 3rd Edition 2021 climatefalsesolutions.org Available in multiple languages
Guenter: there is also a website „Dont nuke the climate“ on the same issue
Ran: Half of our horror culture from zombies to Godzilla is connected to our imagination of disaster and can be traced back to Hiroshima.
Janice : Now there is a push in Canada to put SMNRs- (small modular nuclear reactors) on northern First Nations reserves to replace using diesel for power as a way to deal with climate change. These reactors would probably be abandoned there as getting the waste out would be very difficult and costly.
Christian : Yes, but POPs cause MILLIONS of death annully.
Rebecca : @Janice I have heard of the same push in Hawaii, although nuclear is banned in the state constitution there is small movement to advocate to change that for the smnrs
David: The point is non-nuclear chemicals are far far more prevalent than nuclear hazards
Janice : Thank you so much for this presentation. So needed.
David : So it’s all about maintaining a sense of proportion
Rebecca: Vielen dank, thank you for the conversation!
Guenter: It was a pleasure to participate and hope to keep in contact
Niels : Extremely informative talk, both in terms of facts and empathy – THANK YOU! – as “reflection space” (Grit Ruhland) that links science, the arts and education along the scary borderline of mental and “cynical” (Bo Jacobs) understandings of what invisible radioactivity is, what we did gain from it, what we suffer from locally and what we keep exposing nature and future generations to, globally.
Christian: Thanks to all and all the best to all of you