Powder Keg

Powder Keg depicts a worker handling plutonium residues inside a steel container of a glovebox at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. These residues of plutonium filings and dust were the byproducts of machining and shaping plutonium components for nuclear weapons. Plutonium is among the most toxic and unstable materials ever produced, which can ignite spontaneously when exposed to air.

At Rocky Flats, plutonium residues were widely believed to be the ignition source of multiple radioactive fires, including the catastrophic blazes of 1957 and 1969 that released plutonium into the environment and threatened the Denver metropolitan area. What appears to be routine industrial handling was a moment of extreme risk, where a single spark or misstep could trigger a much larger disaster.

The title Powder Keg refers both to the physical volatility of plutonium and to the broader danger embedded in nuclear weapons production. Even in waste form, plutonium remains a latent force, requiring constant containment and institutional control for tens of thousands of years.