The Nuclear Dream

Since 2011, the German government has been implementing a policy phasing out nuclear power. Over a period of seven years, Bernhard Ludewig photographed the country’s atomic landscape and history, keeping a visual record of the buildings and the work performed in them. The images, collected here, create a unique panorama of usually inaccessible spaces. On show are the plants’ operations – processes including the opening of the reactor and the loading of Castor containers for transport – and interiors, such as control rooms and cooling towers. The book follows the journey of uranium from enrichment through reprocessing to final storage, and shows research spanning from ­Otto Hahn’s discovery of fission to thorium and breeder reactor prototypes. In total 55 sites are represented, and im­ages of research reactors, training facilities, and ­Chernobyl’s sarcophagus provide a further look behind closed door. The Nuclear Dream offers an insight into a disappearing world whose rooms and technology ­often appear sacred. It is a fitting tribute to an era of boundless energy – one whose blue glow captured a generation and proclaimed the start of a new era.