Nuclear Plant as an art platform

Nuclear power... and art – in Ukrainian reality they seem to be completely incongruous. However, there are many examples worldwide where a plant’s cooling tower (the purpose of the structure is to cool the water with atmospheric air) becomes a kind of “industrial canvas” for an artist. A German city of Kalkar has built the Wunderland Kalkar entertainment complex on the territory of the unfinished nuclear power plant. Now the territory that extends to 80 football fields hosts about 40 rides, one of which is the 58-meter-high chair swing ride.

Incidentally, one of the reasons the plant in Kalkar has not been launched was the Chornobyl disaster. But 3.6 billion euros had been spent on its construction, and the facility had to be monetized somehow – thus appeared Wunderland Kalkar. Is it possible to implement this experience in Ukraine? The issue was discussed on the debate “From Nuclear Power to the Art Area,” hosted by Tetiana Verbytska, energy policy expert at the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine.

AN OPERATING PLANT CAN BE MADE MORE “FRIENDLY” TO THE LANDSCAPE

The main condition for starting the artistic life on a power plant is the lack of any nuclear fuel in the area. If a plant has ever been launched, it cannot be turned into an art platform. There are some examples worldwide of artists working on the territory of an operating nuclear power plant, but their activity was restricted only to the cooling tower. For example, eight industrial climbers had been painting an artist’s design for the tower on the French power plant Cruas for 15 years! One cannot imagine an artist working for such a long time on any NPP operating in Ukraine; it’s uncertain whether they would appear there at all.

And what of the unfinished power units? Currently, there are 15 operating power units in Ukraine and several unfinished – at Khmelnytsky NPP (the third and fourth blocks) and in Crimea – in Shcholkine, to which we have no access now due to the Russian occupation.

8,000 HOURS OF LABOR AND 4,000 LITERS OF PAINT WERE SPENT ON AQUARIUS ART PAINTING IN THE FRENCH NUCLEAR POWER PLANT CRUAS / Photo from the website SEOGAN.RU

ON KHMELNYTSKY NPP, SHCHOLKINE, AND... KAZANTIP

The Crimean NPP is little known, although it was Shcholkine where the famous festival “Republic of KaZantip” was held for the first time. By that time the power plant stood abandoned for six years. The first visitors of the festival remember the high altitude crane for the installation of a nuclear reactor, which was called the highest one in Europe and which was sold by the Ukrainian State Property Fund for much lower price along with other equipment in the 2000s. Those ruins are visible in photos of travelers [the Crimean NPP has its own online forum.           – Ed.]. It is impossible to imagine them transformed into industrial counterculture art space, and much less into an entertainment complex...

As for the third and fourth units of Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant, first of all, they are located in the area of an existing power plant. Secondly, they are nearing the end of their lifetime (40 years). According to experts, neither the reactors can be installed – as the existing structure make it physically impossible to use the protection required after the Fukushima – nor dismantled, because the resonance can damage the operating units in the vicinity. Furthermore, the fate of Khmelnytsky NPP can be defined by the political situation, as the reactors were to be installed by Russian companies. It was only 2015 (!) that Ukrainian government did denounce those agreements...

CHORNOBYL NPP: A SOURCE FOR ILLEGAL TOURISM AND CONTRACTING BUSINESS

Only the Chornobyl plant is left – the source of illegal tourism and contracting business. Take for example the sarcophagus, which was to cover the existing Shelter structure over the fourth reactor by 2015. Its cost today, due to inflation and the upsurge of the dollar, has reached 1.6 billion euros; however, according to experts, even the design project (!) of the new arch has not been fully established. Because of the radiation level within the NPP no art platform can be made there – though, according to Verbytska, there are foreign artists who would like to create something there next year. It will be an anniversary after all – 30 years since the tragedy. Yet, the artists at the same discussion pleaded: there are some unique mosaics within the exclusion zone; at least they should be saved. Some of those mosaics were being created for decades, in Prypiat, where tourists go and where they can be seen without major risk to health. But the mosaic restoration is not as ambitious and loud of a project...