Project by Raven Huang
The “Manhattan Black” initiative envisions a fictional archival project led by NUCAMECO, slated for completion by 2050 within the original shaft of Canada’s Cigar Lake uranium mine—500 meters underground. By the 2030s, climate change, political conflict, and technological failures have rendered the containment and handling of nuclear waste and radioactive mining unavoidably harmful to Earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere. For the first time since the Trinity Test, the concept of “nuclear heritage” has entered global consciousness as a normalized condition—marking humanity’s collective reckoning with sustained nuclear pollution and our evolving strategies for coexisting with its consequences. This archive traces the entire lifecycle of uranium mining activities, preserving each footprint in chronological capsules for future reference and reflection. It serves as a planetary exposition proposed by NUCAMECO following the catastrophic Ice Barrier Failure in 2035—a moment of corporate reckoning that led to a strategic shift toward social responsibility and ecological transparency. “Manhattan Black” embodies the company’s transformation and aims to record, archive, and exhibit humanity’s pursuit of the nuclear power and the enduring warnings it has left behind in the Anthropocene.
