controlled collapse of nuclear power plant
© RuptlyThe controlled collapse was carried out on Friday.
An explosive-free controlled demolition of the cooling tower at the Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant in Germany was successfully carried out Tuesday.

Built between 1975 to 1986 and situated on the river Rhine, the plant's 80-metre (262-foot) high cooling tower, which had been a local landmark for decades, disappeared into dust in a matter of seconds.

See video here.

Several slits were cut in the concrete shell on Monday to ensure a total but controlled inward collapse.

Plant
© Ruptly
Then, one-by-one, roughly half of the tower's internal supports were slowly removed using remote-controlled excavators before the final controlled demolition was carried out at approximately 2:25 pm local time.

The plant was shut down in September 1988, after only three-years in operation, but the full decommissioning and demolition process proved rather lengthy in the end.