Satsop
The Washington Nuclear Project Nos. 3 and 5 or more popularly known as Satsop Nuclear Power Plants is a $2.5bn boondaggle located in Grays Harbor County, WA. Two years ago this month, it was the location of a field trip for Ruins in Reverse, a photography class I was taking. The Satsop site has since been reincarnated as a business park and the unfinished nuclear cooling towers serving as an occasional location for movies, music videos and photo tours. The nuclear plants and cooling towers were never operational. The project abandoned in 1982 and what remains show as if frozen in time. Everything is enormous and felt overwhelming, especially inside one of the cooling towers. I was there to take pictures which seemed like an impossible task given its enormity.
We were surrounded by concrete, and at times the temperature felt even hotter, especially in areas where the sun is directly hitting the pavement. It wasn’t the easiest to photograph. Aside from the structures being huge, it was either there wasn’t much light inside the nuclear plant or too much light outside. The irony wasn’t lost to us that this thing that we were taking photos of is a failed attempt to build a nuclear plant. The reasons why we can be there was that the project failed and the nuclear plants were never operational. The photographs from this set I think best encapsulates the theme of the class - ruins in reverse.