Nuclear Water Wonderland
Wednesday, 26th March 2008 by Rob
Just outside of Kelkar in Germany lies a huge nuclear reactor that was ultimately never taken online. The SNR-300 'Fast Breeder' (a neutron reactor that creates more fuel than it uses) was needed since Germany has a limited supply of uranium and wanted to limit imports.
However, by the mid eighties, the disaster at Chernobyl and other political issues meant that development effectively stalled - the building was finished, but none of the radioactive materials were there; the government abandoned it, and the German taxpayer was effectively left with a concrete shell costing 3.5 billion euros.
When a dutch businessman bought the complex in 1995, he decided to turn it into a hotel and amusement park - 'Kernwasser Wunderland', which translates rather unappealingly to 'Nuclear Water Wonderland.' By far the coolest activity in my eyes has to be the ability to both go inside and free climb up the huge painted cooling tower.
Despite the obvious stigma of holidaying at a Nuclear Power plant, over half a million people visit annually. And if you still have a nagging worry, you can be reassured by their slogan - "this whole complex guaranteed free of radiation!"
Find out more about the facility at AskOxford and Wikipedia.
Thanks to Buuts!
About the author
This dutch businessman called Hennie van der Most (http://www.most.nl/) has a lot of weird ideas. He also bought an old water tower and created a rotating restaurant on top of it (http://www.dekoperenhoogte.nl/default.asp?language=gb). This watertower is located here: View Placemark
also: notice the helipad nearby. He always travels by helicopter š
By the way, according to the German Wikipedia the ‘Kernwasser Wunderland” is called ‘Wunderland Kalkar’ since 2005, see http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wunderland_Kalkar
Thanks for that link Werner, there are also some nice photos there – my mistake for not looking at the .de version! I’m severely disappointed by the name change though. š
I’ve actually been there last summer, it’s a great day out. You can’t actually go into the tower but there is a hole in the side with a fence so you can look into it and have fun with the immense echoeing going on in there. The great concrete structure in the center has been refitted as a little museum showing a documentary about the SNR-300 project and has various nuclear equipment and machines on display. It is also the only park I know that has fries, fizzy drinks and icecream all for free and all selfserved.
Cheers for that Paul, what goes on in this massive building, do you know? Seems like it would be incredibly difficult to fill with things to do. Looks slightly overbearing as well!
This thing is so totally creepy weird… I love it! That massive building you linked to especially Rob – it’s like no-one has noticed the bizarre architecture surrounding the rides!
I wonder what it feels like to swim in heavy water….
The massive building is inaccessible, the first floor is a museum and there is no way to go any higher into the structure. There aren’t any rides or attractions in it either so it really is as boring as it looks.
Notice also that the go-kart track has changed recently, last summer the track was split up as seen in Virtual Earth: http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=51.76569&lon=6.327895&z=18.9&r=0&src=msa I’m not sure whether the continuous track was before or after that.
Another funfact: The orange-yellow trashcans are shaped like the head of the parks mascot “kernie” “kern” meaning “nuclear” in german. It supposedly represents something like an atom.
There were guided tours through the big building when the park was first opened. The tour took us to the center of the building where the reactor rods would have been placed if it had gone live. It was rather impressive.