The two colossal cooling towers of the closed-down Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant in central Germany will be demolished in a controlled manner next Friday.
The two towers are 143 metres high, have a base diameter of approximately 105 metres and a top diameter of approximately 64 metres and have been a permanent feature of the skyline south of the city of Schweinfurt for many years.
If all goes according to plan, they will be destroyed by rapid implosions within seconds of each other on August 16.
Spectators have been told they can watch the scene from a distance, without the need for ear protection or face masks. Spectators can set up along the Main River and in the fields and meadows outside the blast exclusion zone.
Just before demolition, a bang will sound to prevent the birds still sitting on the towers from being harmed.
“Thirty seconds is how long the party lasts,” says Matthias Aron, project manager at the Grafenrheinfeld plant.
The cost is just over €3 million ($3.3 million). More than two-thirds of the inflated material can be reused, Aaron said.
It is the second time that cooling towers at a decommissioned German nuclear power plant have been demolished.
The first demolition, in May 2020, involved two towers of the Philippsburg nuclear power plant. This took place without an audience due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Nuclear phase-out after Fukushima
Grafenrheinfeld was in use for 33 years until 2015, when it was taken offline. Dismantling began in 2018 and is expected to take another 10 years, according to project manager Aron.
Germany was so alarmed by the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan in March 2011 that then-Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a gradual phase-out of nuclear power in the country. Eight older nuclear power plants were taken permanently offline in the summer of 2011.
After six decades of nuclear power in Germany, the last three nuclear power plants were closed in April 2023. The dismantling and clean-up of the sites will take years.
