Wrong Rock Blues

 CALL OUT FOR ARTISTS!

“ROCK SOLID? 2”   Call for Artists

'Rock Solid? 2' invites artists of all mediums to submit works to an exciting new exhibition for next year beginning May 9th 2024  at Kendal Museum’s, The People’s Gallery.  

The exhibition encourages creativity and originality in response to the quest to find deep geology in Cumbria from the coastal plain extending under the seabed, to act as “the safest place on earth” for the UK’s heat generating nuclear wastes.  

Cumbria’s coastal fringe cradling the iconic Lake District is on the front line of this quixotic quest.  Artworks are invited in all media taking inspiration from the diverse geology of the Lakeland mountains to the Sea.  We are honoured to have  Martin Greenland, an internationally renowned Cumbrian artist and winner of the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize as Guest Artist at Rock Solid? 2.    This exhibition plans to build on the success of the 'Rock Solid?' exhibition of 2012 also at Kendal Museum which featured Julian Cooper, an artist with an international reputation for capturing on canvas some of the worlds most iconic mountains.   

Why 'Rock Solid? 2'

Cumbria has wonderfully diverse and complex geology.  From Eskdale 'granite' or gneiss and the Solway's Mercia Mudstone to the beautiful minerals such as blue fluorite, calcite, quartz and hematite.  There is a new plan to try to use that geology as the last line of defence to isolate radioactive wastes from the biosphere.

“In Cumbria’s geology extending deep beneath the seabed

a huge mine approximately 1000m deep x 26km square

Is planned to contain man's most long lasting ‘legacy’.

Is it possible?  Is it ethical? 

Should there be production of more waste?

How will we warn future generations to stay away?”

Co-ordinator and artist Marianne Birkby says “it is planned that the exhibition will sit alongside a series of events such as a parallel pop up exhibition in West Cumbria and a walk up Scafell which is not quite 1000 metres to get a feel for how deep the proposed mine would be.”

Contact co-ordinator Marianne Birkby at Wastwater@protonmail.com with ‘Rock Solid? 2’ in the subject line for application forms or telephone 07904 952913

MORE INFORMATION:

ROCK SOLID? 2 - PROPOSED EVENTS - Dates and further details to be released.

Film Screening of Journey to the Safest Place on Earth,  followed by Q & A 

Talk by Invited Expert/s (tbc) on Geological Disposal of High Level Nuclear Wastes  

A Guided Walk up Scafell  (a tough walk requiring a good level of fitness - to be undertaken at people’s own risk)  - at just over 1000m high Scafell is as high as the Geological Disposal Facility would be deep.   From the top of Scafell the Sellafield site and the Lake District’s coastal fringe can be viewed alongside the Irish Sea.

Walk the West Cumbrian Fringe - we will meet at the station at St Bees to take the train to Whitehaven and walk back along the iconic St Bees sandstone clifftops - a  7 mile walk taking in the wonderful wildlife and geology of the Cumbrian Coastal Way (at own risk - a cliff edge walk not suitable for dogs or young children)  

Drawing from Kendal Museum's Hamer Collection - over 1000 minerals from local Cumbrian mines as well as from around the world - a rich kaleidoscope of colours and shapes to inspire this workshop for adults.  We will use mixed dry and watercolor drawing media from charcoals to inktense pencils.  

Create a Warning for Future Generations - Creative and Thought Provoking Workshop for Children aged 7+.    Nuclear waste is the longest lasting pollution ever made by humans.  How will future generations be warned that the danger is just as great in their time as it is in ours?   What sort of civilization and language will there be in the future?  Will they understand our symbols for danger?  

Future Language and the Landscape of Warning - a more in depth Workshop on this theme for Kendal College students - including sculpting landscape forms that could be used as a series of symbols in progression.  

Rock Solid? 2 in West Cumbria - a parallel exhibition in a venue to be confirmed  in West Cumbria

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Suggested Reading

Rock Solid? 2  

Deep Beneath Cumbria’s Coastal Fringe and the Irish Sea is proposed a huge system of underground tunnels to contain humanity's most long lasting legacy in “the safest place on earth."

 Is it possible?  Is it ethical?  

 How will we tell future generations?

 Should we make more waste?

Future Language

Anthropologists, linguists, futurologists are discussing the issue of

how to warn future generations about nuclear waste.  One major hurdle is

the rise and fall of civilisations while the waste remains dangerous for

millions of years.

How to communicate that the nuclear waste is dangerous, how to

physically and mentally repel intrusions in the waste area, and how to be sure

that future peoples don't ignore these warnings like we currently ignore

the curses warned of in ancient Egyptian tombs!

Notes:

How to warn Future Generations "Expert Judgment on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into

 the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant”      http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-control.cgi/1992/921382.pdf

Geology of the west Cumbria district Memoir for 1:50 000 Geological Sheets 28 Whitehaven, 37 Gosforth and 47 Bootle (England and Wales)  https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/Memoirs/docs/B01506.html

Background

In the 1990’s a government agency called Nirex looked at the Gosforth area in West Cumbria as a possible site for geological disposal of nuclear wastes.  An inquiry and appeal followed. The Inquiry Inspector agreed with the view taken by local authorities and environment groups that the risk of radioactive waste migrating to the surface was too great.  Following the failure to find a site in the 1990s, in 2008 the government asked for “volunteer communities” to make a “home” for high-level radioactive wastes deep underground.  Only Cumbria “expressed an interest.”  Volunteer group Radiation Free Lakeland was formed to fight the plan.  In 2013 Cumbria County Council voted to take no further steps towards Geological Disposal.  Their decision can be read here: https://cumbria.gov.uk/elibrary/Content/Internet/538/41543992.PDF

Since 2013 the law has been changed to make Geological Disposal a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project.  Cumbria County Council no longer exists (from 2023) and a new process under Nuclear Waste Services, a division of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has begun in Copeland and Allerdale to “find a home” for high level radioactive wastes.  

1801

“There’s joy in the mountains,

There’s life in the fountains”

Willliam Wordsworth  - a poem

1997  “the location should be in a region of low hydraulic gradients, so that there should be slow-moving and long groundwater pathways; the geology and hydrogeology of the site and its district should be readily characterisable and predictable.”  Chris McDonald, Nirex Inquiry Inspector’s Report  Letter from Chris McDonald to the Guardian 2007 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/28/nuclear.uk   

2008 “Geological disposal safety plans do not assume that total containment by engineered barrier systems for ever is possible.” Dr Adrian Bath,  Engineered Barrier Systems :What are they for and how do they relate to the geosphere? A Presentation https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/~/media/shared/documents/policy/Policy%20Meetings/Bath.pdf?la=en

Volunteer group, Radiation Free Lakeland formed in 2008 to fight the Geological Disposal Facility plans 

2010

“Build-up of gas pressure in the repository, as a result of the corrosion of metals and/or the degradation of organic material, could damage the barriers and force fast routes for radionuclide escape through crystalline rock fractures or clay rock pores.”

Dr Helen Wallace, Rock Solid? A scientific review Sept 15th https://temelin.cz/ke-stazeni/odborne-studie/rock-solid-helen-wallace-genewatch-uk-eng

2011

" I would like us to set a goal of putting the first waste into a geological disposal facility by the end of 2029. I have tasked the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to look at opportunities for accelerating progress to meet this aim.

Charles Hendry MP, Chair of the Geological Disposal Implementation Board, Department of Energy and Climate Change Press Release 28th June 

2012

“This groundwater will return to the surface much faster, within a few decades, if hot temperature, high level waste is also buried. That heat will also make the land surface rise. No earthquakes or extra rainfall are needed.”.

Professor Stuart Haszeldine OBE FRSE C.Geol,  Cockermouth Feb 2nd 2012

2012

"The Swedish concept of emplacing high-level waste in copper cylinders, which are then buried in granitic rock, has been adopted by the UK. But it does not work. This short slideshow explains why. The history of this concept shows that nuclear engineers are over-optimistic, by a factor of 10,000 or more, about the prowess of their technology in containing nuclear waste."  Professor David Smythe  https://www.davidsmythe.org/nuclear/documents.htm

 

2012

“Government is using an approach based on voluntarism and partnership to site a geological disposal facility with the first stage being local communities expressing an interest in entering discussions about the siting process. The invitation for communities to express an interest is still open .  We can be contacted on radioactivewaste@decc.gsi.gov.uk or 0300 068 6111”

2013

"When I came away from the International Conference in Canada, after speaking to many experts from all over the world, I was quite convinced that there was no alternative to a GDF. Then I started my research in earnest… the more I read and studied and listened the less certain I became that a GDF in Cumbria was the solution to Cumbria’s or the UK’s nuclear waste”.    Council Leader Eddie Martin’s speech to Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet 30th January 2013 when CCC voted not to proceed with GDF “steps”.   https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/eddie-martins-speech-to-cabinet-on-30th-january/

2015

Government makes Geological Disposal of Nuclear Waste a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project which provides exemption from regulatory planning process. A yet to be decided “test of public support” would be limited to the immediate area of the GDF.   https://theecologist.org/2015/apr/02/dump-nuclear-waste-first-they-must-dump-democracy

2019  CEO of West Cumbria Mining currently focussed on coal is appointed to the Government Committee on Radioactive Waste Management.  Mark Kirkbride's brief is " provision of advice to BEIS (Dept of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy) and RWM (Radioactive Waste Management now Nuclear Waste Services) on activities relating to the continued development of a GDF safety case" and "GDF siting activities, including selection criteria, methods of investigation, and the timescale for carrying out site selection in the three rock types” and to "advise on new technologies that could be applicable to the development of a GDF including those in the mining and construction sectors and their potential impacts on a GDF programme” https://www.change.org/p/sack-cumbrian-coal-mine-boss-from-government-advisor-role-for-nuclear-dump

2022

“Cumbria County Council will cease to exist in May 2023.  The government chose the new Unitary boundary to coincide with pro-nuclear councils.”   Dr Kate Willshaw, Friends of the Lake District https://allerdalecopeland.greenparty.org.uk/2022/01/30/disposal-of-nuclear-waste-in-cumbria/

"As part of the search for a suitable site to build a Geological Disposal Facility, the Mid Copeland GDF Community Partnership has formed and ..has given access to £1million Community Investment Funding per year .. Lizzie applied for funding for a revamp of the village BMX Pump Track in Seascale and was awarded £47,801".  https://midcopeland.workinginpartnership.org.uk/three-community-projects-awarded-grant-funding-from-gdf-programme/

"Formation of the South Copeland GDF Community Partnership has given access to £1million Community Investment Funding per year from the GDF programme .. The project to benefit from this first round of funding was Millom Cricket Club, receiving £31,236 to make improvements to the clubhouse and facilities.”  South Copeland GDF Community Partnership May 10th 2022 https://southcopeland.workinginpartnership.org.uk/first-projects-in-south-copeland-receive-grant-funding-from-gdf-programme/

"The UK government’s Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) is set to carry out seismic surveys off the Cumbrian Coast between July and August this year. They are looking for a place to dispose of the waste produced by Britain’s nuclear reactors.”   Charlie Jaay in Euronews.green https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/06/22/the-uk-is-searching-the-sea-for-a-nuclear-dump-site-and-the-risks-to-marine-life-are-huge  June 2022

"Maryport Solway Sea Cadets - TS Caesar are thrilled to receive funding from the Allerdale GDF Community Partnership Investment Fund. This investment has allowed us to replace our old pontoons and continue to provide exciting opportunities for our young people to safely access adventures on the water.”    Maryport Solway Sea Cadets 20th November 2022