Fuel Element 2016

A cast nuclear fuel element sculpture, developed in response to the decommissioning of Wylfa nuclear power station, Anglesey - the last working Magnox reactor in the world which shut down on 30th December 2015 after generating its final spark of electricity. The reactor produced energy from the last Magnox fuel elements ever to be manufactured, now obsolete relics of the past. 

This replica fuel element illuminated from within, becomes a powerful symbol of an era of nuclear energy production. Cast in a glass-like resin, it references the vitrification process used to encapsulate radioactive waste within black glass and the death of Magnox production. A blue xenon light source at the core emulates the fission gas xenon-135 present in the reactor; a cause of 'xenon poisoning' that contributed to the Chernobyl disaster.