This week marks both the 50th anniversary of Portland General Electric starting up the only nuclear plant ever built in Oregon, the Trojan Nuclear Plant, and the 20th anniversary of the utility blowing up the plant’s iconic cooling tower.
When it was built, Trojan was the biggest commercial nuclear plant in the country and the second biggest in the world. But its 499-foot cooling tower also became the region’s biggest target for the burgeoning anti-nuclear movement, which, combined with mounting technical problems, spurred PGE to close the plant prematurely.
After decommissioning most of the facility, PGE lined the cooling tower with explosives and invited the world to watch it fall to the ground on May 21, 2006…