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Cooling towers of the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant fall: a spectacular farewell!
On October 25, 2025, the cooling towers of the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant were blown up as planned, accompanied by thousands of onlookers and security measures.
Cooling towers of the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant fall: a spectacular farewell!
An important chapter in the history of the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant was accidentally concluded today at 12 p.m. with the scheduled demolition of the two cooling towers. The towers, which are over 160 meters high, shaped the landscape of the Günzburg district for almost half a century and were observed by thousands of onlookers. The event attracted many interested people who were looking forward to the ruins of a former nuclear power plant, as [SWR](https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/ulm/akw-gundremmingen-kuehltuerme-ge Sprengt-100.html) reported.
The explosion consisted of two controlled ignitions that occurred approximately 15 seconds apart. While the cooling towers, which were originally used to cool the heated cooling water, tilted slightly to the side and then collapsed vertically, the entire operation was carried out by the Thüringer Sprenggesellschaft. The experts had been working on the blast for over a year, drilling over 1,000 holes for the explosives, as the Kleine Zeitung adds.
A safe framework for the explosion
To ensure the safety of spectators, a large exclusion zone was set up and came into force on Friday evening. Hundreds of police officers monitored compliance with this exclusion zone to ensure that no one entered the danger zone. Several sections of the road were closed to traffic and around 1,900 parking spaces were made available for onlookers, which only increased anticipation for the event. Some spectators celebrated the demolition with "explosive sausage" and drinks at impromptu demolition parties in the area, although poor visibility conditions affected visibility for others, it was reported.
Not only the explosion itself, but also the preparations associated with it are remarkable. Since the final decommissioning of the nuclear power plant in 2021, with the shutdown of the third unit, the dismantling of all areas of the plant has been ongoing. So far, between 4,600 and 4,700 tons of material have been removed. During the blasting, an additional 56,000 tons of reinforced concrete are destroyed, which are then processed into gravel and recycled, according to [Süddeutsche Newspaper](https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/rueckbau-von-kernkraft-countdown-zur- Sprengung-gundremmingens-kuehltuerme-fallen-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-250917-930-50227) reported.
Perspectives after the explosion
The dismantling of the former nuclear power plant is expected to last until the 2030s. RWE is already planning the subsequent use of the site, and the groundbreaking ceremony for a massive battery storage facility is scheduled to take place next Wednesday, which will be the largest in Germany with a capacity of around 700 megawatt hours. This storage will be necessary to store solar energy produced during the day and release it at night.
In addition to the battery storage system, a large photovoltaic system and a new gas power plant are also being planned, while the debate about the role of nuclear power in stable electricity supply continues to be intense. Proponents still consider nuclear power to be an important source of energy, but there is increasing focus on renewable energy to meet future energy supply challenges.