"Specimens growing in Bayo Canyon, near Los Alamos, New Mexico, exhibit a concentration of radioactive strontium-90 300,000 times higher than a normal plant. Their roots reach into a closed nuclear waste treatment area, mistaking strontium for calcium due to its similar chemical properties. According to Joseph Masco, the radioactive shrubs are "indistinguishable from other shrubs without a Geiger counter."
Chamisa Geiger counter is a site specific responsive ionizing radiation detector which was designed to detect Strontium-90 radiation uptake in the Chamisa / Rubber Rabbitbrush plant within the Bayo Canyon in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Bayo Canyon was the site of Technical Area 10, where 254 RaLa (Radioactive Lanthanum) implosion experiments were conducted from from September 1944 through March 1962 and lead to the development of the "Fat-Man" bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. The site was remediated by the US Department of Energy from 1982–2002, and contains burried radioactive waste which cannot be uncoverd until 2142. The site also contains an immense amount of aluminum, steel, glass, rubber, wire, and other debris which are occasionally found to be mildly radioactive.
This project was developed duing a residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute's 2023 Changing Climate Residency program.
The electronics in this design are based on the Mighty Ohm Geiger Counter
Chamisa Geiger counter
2025
SBM-20 Geiger-Müller tube, Custom Electronics, Printed Circuit Board, PLA
11" x 5.5" x 1"