The Nuclear Chronicles: Design Research on the Landscapes of the U.S. Nuclear Highway by Andrew Madl is an exploration of unrealized U.S. government nuclear proposals and their speculative impact on the western landscape. Through fictional narratives in a graphic novel format, the book imagines cultural and ecological shifts, illustrating infrastructures and economies that might emerge if these plans were implemented. The work promotes innovative storytelling in landscape architecture to address complex, modern territorial challenges.

The novel is unfolding around the main character’s remediation project of a former nuclear blast site. Remediation of the nuclear aftermath is done by a farmer, Mr McDonald and his pair of working hands. He was (voluntarily) dispossessed of his land to accommodate the government’s secret programme before he got it back in a contaminated state. Please describe the atmosphere, time frame and the character.

The book begins with the inception of the nuclear bomb, aligning to the factual timeline of the first test and subsequent U.S. nuclear programs that follow. The entanglements of government and land ownership blur past and future contexts portraying anxieties and unsettling situations that depict a past that could have been while simultaneously responding to present and future political, social, and ecological issues. The story while largely set in the past, leading up to the present, intends to utilize counterfactual history to investigate desirable and undesirable futures. The protagonist of the first chapter, the nuclear cowboy, Mr. McDonald, non-fictional in his surname, navigates new obstacles and potentials in the now nuclear landscape he calls home. His livelihood, and way of life are challenged in unanticipated ways not so dissimilar to contemporary government and private landownership dialogues. He is seeking to regain what he lost and accept changes in his beliefs relative to notions of stability and trust in his country’s government.

In the book, you are referencing paradoxical situations like the peaceful use of nuclear explosives classified under the project Plowshare, which included blast-fabricating the landscape creating new port channels, rail and road lines, and as a byproduct of radioactivity, tritiated water and devastated lands. The novel can be read as a past scenario played out, or a possible future. How far from the consciousness of people and current government programs are the nuclear landscapes in Nevada and elsewhere? 

The nuclear landscapes of the southwestern United States will always provide a legacy and identity to the regions in which they occupy. These landscapes tell stories of the past while continuing to provide grounds and facilities for the future creation and testing of military technologies. Health concerns of populations adjacent to past test sites and lost family lands still linger in the communities of this territory. Yucca Mountain Nuclear Water Repository, adjacent to the Nevada Test Site, has continued to be a contested project for storing nuclear waste. The abandoned project while mostly completely designed, with a portion constructed, has been recently revisited as an answer to handle the radioactive waste products of the United States. This poses a series of issues for bordering land uses and communities. The geological composition of the site is not ideal for long-term storage of nuclear waste due to porosity and seismic activity which can lead to contamination of the aquifer and nearby agricultural region. Nuclear landscapes in the southwestern United States are still a present and future concern.   

You investigated these landscapes and possible scenarios together with students in your design studio at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. What was the research method, what technologies did you use in the story visualisation, and why choose the drawing?

The project began with an investigation into military landscapes, bomb testing sites, facilities, and Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS). These sites were explored as a means to navigate the alignment of technology to landscape and what responses are registered in the various, political, social, ecological, and economic systems that embody the landscapes. The research became more focused on nuclear landscapes through the scales and legacies in which the nuclear bomb operates. The proximity of Oak Ridge, TN, where one of the facilities of the Manhattan Project was located also fueled the study. Through my own research and that of the design studios, worldbuilding and fictional narratives were utilized to craft scenarios and interventions. In correspondence to the methods of worldbuilding through fictional storytelling, animation software, physics simulations, and algorithmic scripting were deployed to address the complexity and drama of the work. The illustrations of the book took the form of a graphic novel to aid in portraying the fictional content while experimenting with 3D digital workflows and techniques from allied visual disciplines.     

Andrew Madl is an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Architecture + Design. His teaching and research investigate digital media to speculate landscape consequences in response to technological explorations and advancements. 

Published on November 13, 2024