To the east, the northern English region of Cumbria boasts the Lake District National Park, an area beloved by tourists for its ‘iconic’ landscapes. To the west, Cumbria’s coastline (dubbed the Energy Coast for its historic association with energy industries) is home to the Sellafield nuclear facilities.

Sellafield has known multiple activities in its lifetime - from producing plutonium for nuclear bombs, to energy production, waste management, reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel and temporary storage. Having entered full decommissioning, Sellafield must now focus on waste retrieval and ‘environmental remediation’.

Building on her previous research in West Cumbria, Petra Tjitske carries out 6 months of additional ethnographic filedwork in this area.

A peninsula within a peninsula, the French area of La Hague in Normandy is home to a variety of coastlines and landscapes. Known for its extended ‘bocage’, a network of small agricultural parcels divided by hedges and dry stone walls, this area also hosts a sizeable nuclear fuel reprocessing facility and a nuclear waste storage site.

The fuel reprocessing site is not being decommissioned, but faces problems of waste retrieval and safe-keeping and environmental remediation similar to Sellafield, in a very different national setting characterized by strong state influence and a dependency on nuclear energy.

Sarah is conducting 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in La Hague.

Design and landscape aesthetics in the Netherlands have been associated with a strong history of and confidence in ‘maakbaarheid’ (loosely translated as engineerability). This is particularly the case for the landscape of Borsele, a municipality in Zeeland, a Dutch province associated with centuries of engineering efforts to protect and reclaim land from the sea.

Borsele’s intimate landscape of dykes and fruit growing activities borders on the estuary of the Scheldt river, a major point of industrial transit towards the port of Antwerp. Amidsttheavy industry sits the Netherlands’ only operating nuclear power plant, as well as the national nuclear waste repository (COVRA).

Energy transition plans have been announced by the Dutch government, singling out Borsele as a potential host for new nuclear build, which is seen to threaten this small-scale habitat. Petra Tjitske carries out ethnographic work in this region.

A sparsely populated county in northern Scotland with a decidedly international feel, Caithness’s landscapes include fertile fields bordered by flagstones, impressive cliffs, and extensive peatlands. It is home to the nuclear site of Dounreay, a former research and experimental facility. Right next to it sits HMS Vulcan, a Ministry of Defence site where nuclear submarine fuels used to be tested. Both sites are now being decommissioned, with Dounreay recently in the news for having formally postponed its envisaged end state from 2033 to the 2070s.

Similarly to Sellafield, Dounreay has rebranded itself as a site of ‘environmental remediation’, part of the NDA’s Nuclear Restoration Services, implying a focus on environmental issues going beyond risk containment. Petra Tjitske conducts 6 months of ethnographic research in the area.