requiem for trojan...

The 499 foot cooling tower at the defunct Trojan nuclear plant was blown up today. The views shown here no longer exist.

The event received wide coverage on all the local television stations, replete with breathless announcers and competitive high drama: "The Trojan Implosion".

And it was very dramatic indeed to see the demolition on live television. Interesting, too. The controlled implosion and cloud of dust was eerily reminiscent of the perfectly engineered collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11. And similar also to the mysterious implosion of yet another building at the World Trade Center site, known as Building 7, also attributed to the so-called 9/11 "attack"...

A few factoids gleaned from the tv coverage today:

* The tower had become home to a pair of nesting peregrine falcons. Evidently they found the structure similar to their customary habitat on the face of sheer cliffs. The report said their nest had been home to at least 30 births over the years. The birds were evicted and their nest destroyed in the days before the tower was blown up.

* The destruction was once scheduled to take place many years from now, in 2018. Then it was decided that it would be cheaper to go ahead and do it now, while the structure was still in good sound condition, rather than attempting a less predictable implosion after the structure had undergone significant natural deterioration.

* The structure to the left of the tower that looks like an observatory building (see the top photo) is known as the "containment building". This is where the real nasty stuff was kept. They plan to blow that up a couple years from now, in 2008.

Near Rainier, Oregon, these photos are from our last visit for some teaholes in March 2006.

Rolleiflex 3.5E, Fuji Acros, PMK.