Listen to the text of this chapter:

Pato Hebert

Study #17 for the Infeasibility of Peaceful Nuclear Explosions, 2022
Panamá rosewood, silver leaf, gold leaf, achiote

Study #17 for the Infeasibility of Peaceful Nuclear Explosions draws from the U.S. government's Interoceanic Canal Studies of the 1960s. These studies explored the feasibility of using underground nuclear explosives to blow out the earth and form a new sea level canal to connect the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean for expanding commercial and military empire. Ultimately, the project was never realized. This sculpture evokes the route proposed for canal option #17 through the Darién region of Panamá.

What newness might arise from political, personal and environmental catastrophes? This question has great urgency as climate change intensifies and the U.S. continues to invent new, smaller nuclear power plants in an effort to satisfy expanding energy needs and sustain the nuclear industrial complex. Questions of nuclear waste generation, transport and storage remain. How might we understand the links between techno-optimism, colonial and imperial precedents, and the devastating impacts on humans and the ecologies of which we are a part?