A little pronuclear fun for a Saturday morning
Several months ago, Suzy Hobbs of PopAtomic Studios and the Nuclear Literacy Project gave me a signed print of the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant with some Photoshopped cooling towers. She created the print as part of her effort to show nuclear plant owners how their massive concrete structures could be used as an excellent canvas for a public art project. That print is in a prominent location in my office and has been the subject of numerous conversations.
Since most of you cannot visit me in my office, here is an image of the print for your enjoyment.
If they could paint-camouflage cooling towers to melt in with the skies or surroundings it’d be a worthwhile aesthetic and local-property values enhancing endeavor. Never liked the monstrous things, whose looming alien looks helped contribute to and stereotype TMI’s ominous image of otherworldly peril to the point that some unusually clueless reporters (WCBS/WABC-TV) during that period actually reported that the cooling towers WERE the reactors! Vermont Yankee’s more subtle scenic-friendly method is the PR way to go!
James Greenidge
Queens NY
I love it. What do you say, TVA?
Ironically enough, here in Britain almost no nuclear power stations have cooling towers (as they use seawater cooling instead) but lots of fossil fuel power stations have them…
There are some real-life examples of painted cooling towers. In the link below, one in Germany and another in France.
http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2010/07/post-on-yucca-and-our-new-favorite.html
James- If you have seen pictures of the Fukushima Daiichi reactor buildings BEFORE they were damaged by the hydrogen explosions, the buildings were painted in a pretty blue and white pattern. I don’t know if you could call it camouflage, but perhaps those buildings would tend to blend into the blue ocean and sky when viewed from inland.
http://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/satellite-image-shows-damage-to-reactor-buildings-at-fukushima-daiichi-comp/
And it could confuse terrorists ….
A while back I asked on my Facebook page “nuke roadie ” if the ironic cooling towers were attracting negative attention to nuclear plants. There is a plant in my area called ginna that has no tower and seems to fall under the radar so to speak , the overwhelming consensus was that nuclear should not have to hide the fact that it is there. I still believe that the cooling towers have a negative connotation,fueled by the media and they should be retired in favor of a less “in your face ” system. Any aesthetic improvements can not hurt either. Make them an attraction ,paint them with murals ,make them something to be enjoyed and maybe some of the stigma attached to them might fade.
How about a little Andy Warhol and covering the cooling towers with Cambell’s Soup can labels.
Maybe paint it to look like a red brick wall and let ivy grow on it – call it a green project! Or just paint the ivy on it. More crass option – sell advertising space on it.