TARGET 100818

Wunderland Kalkar
(Kalkar Wonderland)

Cooling Tower

The Kalkar Nuclear Cooling Tower

In Kalkar, Germany, in 1972, construction was started on the SNR-300, the first fast breeder nuclear reactor in Germany. The reactor was designed to use plutonium as fuel and be cooled by sodium, and was to output 327 megawatts of energy. It was still a very new technology at the time, but the German government was determined to limit energy import and, as the uranium supply in Germany was limited, a breeder facility to use the limited resources efficiently was required.

The local state government was concerned about the safety of nuclear energy, and sporadic demonstration continually delayed the project. In 1979, disaster struck at another nuclear plant at Three Mile Island, and public protests reached new heights. Despite opposition, construction of the SNR-300 continued and by 1985 the power plant was competed. By that time about 7 billion Deutsche Mark (about 3.5 billion euros or over 4 billion USD) were already spent on it.

Then in 1986, after the Chernobyl disaster, the SNR-300 never went into full operation, and in 1991, the project was officially cancelled.

Totally unused, the building is essentially one of the most expensive, complicated pieces of trash in the world. Among the more amazing facts about the unused reactor are its cost - "20,000 houses with a value of 200,000 Euro each could have been built with the money;" its size - the total complex being some 80 soccer fields large, made of enough concrete to construct a highway from Amsterdam to Maastricht; and its complexity - with enough wire strung up in the complex to circle the entire globe twice.

So, the complex was sold in 1991 to a Dutch investor who, leaving the reactor building in place, set up an amusement park called "Kernies Wunderland." The name was eventually changed to the "Wunderland Kalkar," which today occupies the grounds as well as the unused reactor.

Tea Cups
People Go-Round
Pink Elephant

The grounds surrounding the tower and building provide rides and entertainment for the visitors.

Merry go round
"Wunderland Kalkar" receives some 600,000 visitors a year and employs about 550 people on the high season.

There are a total of 40 attractions on the premises, including a rollercoaster , the whirligig "Flying Carrousel", the vertical travel "Jumping Star", "Kernie's boat," the nostalgic carousel "Merry Go Round", the Ferris wheel "Mini Ferris Wheel" and a flume. The inside of the cooling tower was outfitted with a swing ride, and the outer wall was added to a climbing wall converted. In addition, it houses a case- whirligig called "Vertical Swing," which weighs 25 tons and its 58 m height of the tower on the edge protrudes, and there is a children's park with ten different attractions.

The central merry-go-round

A merry-go-round inside the cooling tower begins spinning the riders in swings around at the bottom...

Ride at top of tower

And then takes them to the top, where they swing outside the top of the tower, in the open air.

FEEDBACK MAP

Feedback Map

To learn more about The Fast Breeder nuclear reactor SNR-300: take a look at the following web sites:

WikiPedia - The Fast Breeder nuclear reactor SNR-300 was built near the town of Kalkar, Germany


WikiPedia - Kalkar




Many thanks to Ray McClure for this target of the week.