Atomic Albion

Walking tours of Britain's nuclear power stations, exploring the history of the sites they occupy and their social, ecological, and cultural impact on the landscape.

The United Kingdom has sixteen nuclear power stations. Most go under the radar, but their presence is enormous, both physically and culturally. They divide opinion like nothing else. Are they relics of a past era, or a crucial part of our futures? Are they cathedrals of science or temples of doom? Atomic Albion is a journey around Britain's nuclear power stations and the country itself. From the Essex marshes to the Anglesey coast, from the Dungeness shingle to the far north of Scotland, Tom Bolton explores how nuclear sites shape the places around them, and enters the impossible world of nuclear power and weapons.

• i. Introduction
• 1. Winfrith: Dorset Dragon
• 2. Trawsfynydd: Wet Slate
• 3. Wylfa: Copper Coast
• 4. Sizewell: Sunrise Industry
• 5. Heysham: Sunset Bay
• 6. Sellafield: Atomic City
• 7. Chapelcross: Devil’s Porridge
• 8. Hunterston: Heavy Water
• 9. Dungeness: Fifth Continent
• 10. Torness: Dunbar Grey
• 11. Dounreay: Tiny Sun
• 12. Berkeley and Oldbury: Low Tide
• 13. Hinkley Point: Savage Place
• 14. Bradwell: Sea Wall
• 15. Hartlepool: Dark Beauty
• ii. Epilogue

"A brutal, beautiful journey."
—The Financial Times“No one has revealed more occluded or buried sources of fascination to me than Tom Bolton, and with this book he has excelled himself.”
—Tom Holland

“Awesome in the true sense of the word, Bolton’s brilliant and disturbing nuclear travelogue manages to be elegiac as well as terrifying.”
—Phil BakerTom Bolton is a writer who lives in South London. He has published five other books: London’s Lost Rivers: A Walker’s Guide Volumes 1 and 2 (Strange Attractor), Vanished City (Strange Attractor), Camden Town: Dreams of Another London, and Low Country (shortlisted for the New Angles Prize). He works in architecture and urban design, and has a PhD on London’s railway terminals. He also writes on theater and music for publications including Plays International and The Quietus.