The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) took part in the international conference “Radiant Monuments? Nuclear Power Plants Between Cultural Heritage and Hazardous Legacy” in Bern, Switzerland, from 22/01 to 24/01/2025. The aim of the conference was to exchange ideas on re-use possibilities for nuclear power plants, with a focus on Switzerland.

Around 40 participants from academia, heritage preservation and public administration gathered to discuss the potential heritage value and future uses of nuclear power plants. The organisation “Baukulturen der Schweiz” and the University of Bern, in cooperation with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Suisse, invited experts from across Europe for this exchange. 

Gorleben, Garching, Wismut – BASE presents projects on nuclear remembrance culture 

Dr Sarah Glück and Dr Frederik Gremler from BASE’s Department of Research and International Affairs presented early findings from a project focused on the visual landscape of nuclear heritage in Germany. They highlighted that in the digital space, it is mainly museums and civil society actors who shape the culture of remembrance. Images of nuclear power plants themselves are relatively rare. 

Dr Melanie Mbah from the Öko-Institut (Institute for Applied Ecology) also presented findings from a BASE-commissioned project titled Approaches and Methods of Nuclear Cultural Heritage and Their Applicability in the Context of the Site Selection Procedure (NuCultAge) (in German). 

The project focused on three case studies of institutionalising nuclear cultural heritage in Germany. The examples covered the thematic areas of 1) waste management and protest, illustrated by the the case of Gorleben, 2) the history of the nuclear industry, using the Garching research centre as an example and 3) memory processes related to German uranium mining, using the example of Wismut. 

Prof. Dr Philipp Oswalt (University of Kassel – Department of Architectural Theory and Design) and Dr Detlev Möller, Head of BASE’s “Long-term Documentation” unit (F5), gave concise insights into recent debates on the heritage value of nuclear power plants in Germany. They also presented the role of long-term documentation as a potential building block in a long-term preservation strategy. 

A nuclear power plant as a theme park – What comes after shutdown? 

Other presentations explored the visual impact of nuclear power plants on the landscape and showcased a wide range of reuse concepts, ranging from from municipal archives to theme parks to modern battery storage facilities. The conference brought together perspectives not only from German-speaking countries but also from the UK, Lithuania and Spain. 

Overall, the event offered valuable input for further engagement with the topic of monument protection at nuclear power plant sites in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Several contributions referred back to the BASE-organised conference “Nuclear Power Plants as Monuments – Sites of Memory and Knowledge Repositories” (in German) held on 1 July 2024, continuing the conversations begun there.