Design Map · Eindhoven
Nuclear Hubris
Graduation project by Alena Halmes at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
Swiss law allows nuclear power only if its waste can be safely stored. For more than fifty years, the state-appointed company Nagra has searched for a material capable of containing radioactive waste, eventually selecting Opalinus clay, a Jurassic-era mudstone, for its sealing properties. Nagra’s proposal to bury high-level radioactive waste 800 metres underground for at least one million years is the starting point for ‘Nuclear Hubris’.
The installation brings together a tower of paper representing Nagra’s 30,000-page application, a series of imprecise measuring devices and a replica of a spent fuel rod made from excavated Opalinus clay. Together, these objects question the pursuit of absolute certainty in nuclear waste management and the belief that technological control can permanently contain its toxic legacy.