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The Context

⭕ This is the design I created for The Red Team Analysis Society article [🇫🇷 🇬🇧] titled:

“Towards a U.S. Nuclear Renaissance?”

This design is the Sixthin the Uranium Series, following “Niger: a New Severe Threat for the Future of France’s Nuclear Energy?”.

On 30 September 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published the latest edition of the Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear.

Its aim is to contribute to accelerate advanced nuclear reactors’ commercial deployment in support of U.S. objectives in terms of nuclear energy, necessary notably to achieve its decarbonization goals.

The U.S. DOE document sets the civilian nuclear objectives the U.S. state would like to achieve, and presents arguments to convince American companies, including bankers and other financial institutions, that they should invest in nuclear energy. What is the American nuclear renaissance all about?

Why is it important knowing, in 2024, the U.S. is still the first civil nuclear power in the world? How does it fit in with the global return to nuclear power? What does it mean for the American National Interest? How does it compare with China’s surge in nuclear energy? Are the U.S. nuclear power objectives feasible?

Will a new Nuclear Divinity arise from the waters of uncertainty ?

The Design

Like Venus, the ancient goddess painted in Botticelli’s masterpiece, Nuclear Power emerges from the waters, the navel of self-centered Love shimmering through in its core… Will nuclear power be loved and cherished by the United States? Will they allow it to be born?

On the left, Zephyr, the gentle wind of Spring, dressed in the star-spangled mantle, blows the breeze of possible renewal on the young nuclear power that is shaking itself out of the waters… Is it the breath of rebirth or the one that announces the storm of inconsequence?

On the right, one of the Hours seeks to cover the fragile nuclear power with the red and white stripes of the thirteen founding states, symbolizing the monopolization of this newborn power into the foundations of the American State.

But which Hour is it? Is it Auxo, Hour of Growth? Thallo, Hour of Flowering? Or Carpo, the Hour of Fructification? Is there still time for the Nuclear Hour to arise?

The texture of the nuclear symbol is that of gold painted on the raw canvas, still iridescent from its crackling radioactivity… When this new divinity will open its eyes, what spectacle will it contemplate? What words will it pronounce? And will it be lively enough to survive its own (re)birth?

Or will its Renaissance remain only a sketch on the easel of States, too dreamy to see the Twilight of the ungrateful Gods and the carefree Men that is inevitably advancing?…

Summary of the Topic

🔻 Description of the drivers behind the American nuclear energy renaissance and objectives, mainly those related to international relations, American national security and constraints required for energy decarbonisation.

🔻 Why and how out-competing China and constraining Russia over the international chessboard is incorporated into that Renaissance.

🔻 Presenting the two scenarios of the U.S. Department of Energy… and possibly a third?

🔻 Uncertainty and Challenges linked to the stakes of that Renaissance.

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This post belongs to the Category :

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Check my latest posts!

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Check the latest comments!

1. 

   Thank you very much for your comment coming from an IT expert, Nouha!

2. 

   Very interesting article and excellent choice for th Sphinx!!

3. 

   Splendid as always! And also this showcase the very broad scope of your design skills!

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Related Links :

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The Context

🐲 This illustration has been commissioned by a French roleplaying game magazine. This is the fourth adventure of the parody of a roleplaying party described in Episode 1. During the previous episode, the adventurers negotiated at length to NOT cross the cursed portal which led to the cursed vegetable garden to collect cursed vegetables, but they failed the negotiation. This time, they have no choice: they will have to face the guardians of the vegetable garden: giant snails (which are also cursed…).

The Illustration

After having announced a great danger beyond the portal in the previous illustration, I had to represent an epic fighting scene between the four adventurers and the giant snails… I was inspired by historical medieval illuminations which represented this kind of fights between knights and peasants against giant snails during the European middle-age; as depicted in the two images below (click to expand) :

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However, in order to keep the same pictorial style as the previous episodes – and considering the large number of protagonists – I decided to decompose the image and the action into foreground scene, intermediate scene and background scene, in order to include four independent sketches in the same illustration. Narratively and pictorially speaking, it was more interesting to represent four “duels” animating the page than a pitched battle split into two monolithic camps: the snails against the adventurers. This way, the eye can better wander around the page and appreciate the temperament of each character immersed in their own battle.

Each of the snail shells also bears an individual inscription which has a double purpose: First, it allows to personalize each of the snails by giving it a form of personality, posing like the innkeeper’s “cattle” where each animal would have its own nickname, like a pet. And Second, each inscription has “added value” in the way it evokes either a pop-culture “meme” or a pun made out with the word “Escargot” (“Snail” in French).

In the foreground, I chose to focus on the Barbarian‘s victory against his own giant snail; the animal nature of the Barbarian is finally revealed as he literally devours the snail alive, like a succulent dish. I also chose to give a “cartoonish” appearance to the snails, so that they become characters in their own right – and no longer just animals – so that they can also express emotions that can serve the interaction dynamic they have with the adventurers. The pun on its shell is “Chubby-Niggurath”, an allusion to “Shub-Niggurath”, an iconic deity from H.P. Lovecraft‘s cosmogony; and it is also an allusion to the succulent texture of the snail which the Barbarian feasts on.

On the intermediate level, the Wizard enchants a cabbage by levitation in order to delay the assault of his snail, the time someone else comes to help him… or to lure the gastropod towards a possible precipice. His snail bears the inscription “Naute” to form the pun “Escargot-Naute” and therefore “Argonaut”, as if this vegetable harvest were a mythological feat…

Behind the Wizard, the Priest is in difficulty facing his own snail, which is very aggressive – even demonic – which explains the surge of faith of the Priest who tries to do a “Vade Retro” gesture by crossing two leeks to form a crucifix. His snail bears the inscription “de Nuit” to form the pun “Escargot de Nuit” (“Night Snail”), an allusion to a famous French song from the 80’s by Axel Bauer : “Cargo de Nuit”.

In the extreme background, the silhouettes of the Thief scrapping with his snail at the top of a cliff stand out, in the purest style of a swashbuckling film. This scene also allowed me to extend the perspective and the dimension of the vegetable garden as if it were an immense and infinite valley, even a magical country in its own right, which would extend beyond the portal – a strong homage to the World of Narnia. The shell of his snail bears the inscription “Norrhea” to form the pun “Escargot-Norrhea” and therefore “Gonorrhea”, which is a sexually transmitted infection… this snail being particularly infected, it is better that our thief dispose of it as quickly as possible! Note that the position of the off-hand of the Thief and the tip of the snail’s tail are mirroring each other, typical of an “En Garde” fencing position.

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This post belongs to the Category :

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Check my latest posts!

• “The 4M” : Designing Superheroes for Public HealthJuly 24, 2026
• Site Update : World Architect OffersNovember 27, 2025
• Interview with a Compeer #1.1 : Desfragmentations – “The Alchemical Vision”June 11, 2025
• Using AI creatively : Character Design – Yaràn MalakMay 12, 2025
• Article Header Design: “How to use AI for Weak Signals – Trump, the International Revolutionary?”March 28, 2025

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Check the latest comments!

1. 

   Thank you very much for your comment coming from an IT expert, Nouha!

2. 

   Very interesting article and excellent choice for th Sphinx!!

3. 

   Splendid as always! And also this showcase the very broad scope of your design skills!

---

Related Themes :

---

Related Links :