Nuclear Water Wonderland: theme park on reactor site

Following up on an earlier BoingBoing post about a Disney theme park designer's macabre joke-proposal to build an amusement park on Three Mile Island, BB reader Eur van Andel says:

Reality is always stranger than fiction: The Kalkar nuclear fast breeder reactor was never started and was bought by a Dutch entrepreneur who turned it into an amusement park: Link (in english).

The URL translates as "nuclear water wonderland". More on why it failed: Link.

Bottom line: it was built around the time of the Three Mile Island meltdown and did not have its nuclear materials yet when Chenobyl exploded. It was built for 3.5 billion euros and sold for 2.5 million euros. All of it German taxpayers' money :-(

Awesome. On the promotional website, along with rates and recreation options, this cheerful text:

Because this nuclear power station has never been put into use, is this whole complex guaranteed free of radiation!

There's yet another amusement park on an abandoned nuclear reactor site (this is another part of the same park), mentioned in our earlier post (screengrab below): Link to "Kernie's Family Park."

Reader comment: Carsten Kaefert says,

I'm quite fascinated that by reading bOINGbOING I actually found a sight pretty much in my neighborhood. Guess that is what's meant by "global village". But when surfing through the linked pages I found a little misunderstanding in your article: There aren't two post-nuclear themeparks around. It's just one, as "Kernies Familienpark" is a part of "Nuclear Water Wonderland" ("Kernwasser-Wunderland"). At least both of them are located on the remains of the Kalkar nuclear facility.

Stephen Dennis says,

In the nuclear theme park theme, and alternative uses of a nuclear park, here is a story by Austin Meyer, author of the awesome x-plane, visiting an abandoned nuclear power station which contains - no kidding - the set from the movie The Abyss. Long - but fun to read and the pictures are priceless. Link.

Previously on BB:

Disney Designer's Fun Park Plans for Three Mile Island