Energiewende – Times of Change

October 25, 2017

Since 19.10.2017 the Industry-museum of the LVR in Oberhausen, Germany is presenting the exhibition “Energiewende – Wendezeiten”. It spans an arc from power generation in the Rhineland through water and windmills over the epoch of coal and steel, the development of electrical engineering, strides into the nuclear power and the hasty exit, and invites discussion on the technical and social design of the present Energiewende.

The exhibition reveals that every new form of energy has led to a Energiewende and at the same time a social change, with winners and losers, and that the energy supply characterizes and expands the living space of a population by the peasant colonization of the Oberhausen area with about 2000 people at the time of Wind and water mills, up to 200,000 inhabitants in the industrial age. The exhibition presents a series of spectacular exhibits.

With the GHH Oberhausen, the THTR in Hamm-Uentrop, the fast breeder in Kalkar, the production of fuel elements in Gronau, the simulator center in Kupferdreh, the KKW Würgassen and research in Jülich, the contribution of North Rhine-Westphalia for nuclear energy in the past is shown with pride.

In this part of the exhibition, parts of the S32 simulator for Philippsburg 1 have been used for a new purpose. They are presented in addition to a section of the reactor cover of the Würgassen, fuel elements and a sectional model of the THTR as well as many time documents.

The exhibition runs for 1 year and can be reached by foot from the main railway station of Oberhausen in less than 5 minutes.