Adaptive reuse of nuclear heritage.

Case study: Vandellòs Nuclear Power Plant (Spain)

Radioactive material is a powerful, invisible, colorless and odorless weapon. This paper explores the image of the
nuclear power plants (landmarks) and the possibility of changing their uses once their useful lives are over (rests).
The research is part of the doctorate program that is based on: “Architecture on the first generation nuclear power
plants in Spain (1967-1972)” and focused on the transformation project of Vandellòs NPP (1967-72 / 1989) into an
oncological research and treatment center that uses proton therapy. After 17 years of operation, the power plant shut
off in 1989 due to an incident in its cooling system. The Spanish government expects to bring it down completely in
2028, after 40 years of latency. This paper offers a real prospect to transform something that is invisible and undesired
by the world population, such as radioactivity, into something that is renovated, visible and well-known, such as
decontaminated open structures of a nuclear power plant.

As we have seen before, rest and landmark concepts are analysed in this paper. The first meaning of the latter concept
is “something that you can see clearly from a distance, and that will help you to know where you are”. Radioactive
material (content) is represented by the construction of the reactor building (container). It offers a clear and precise
form designed by an engineer: prisms, pyramids, masts, cylinders and spheres. The reactor building forms the visible
part of the landscape, giving the identity and provoking the collective memory of the place where it is located.
Reinforced concrete structures have better technical requirements than a conventional industrial program. Once its
useful life is over, the rests of the plant remain, pending its decommissioning and simple demolition. Rests mean “the
part of something that remains”, in this case, a large amount of reinforced concrete structures and the collective
memory. Over the next two decades, more than 400 reactor buildings will be decommissioned and taken down
worldwide. These obsolete reactors (landmarks) have started and represented radioactivity since the early 1950s,
during the Atomic Age. Using the technology and the knowledge we arrange nowadays, would it be possible to
transform these old nuclear power plants into clean and open structures to accommodate new uses?

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has proposed the adaptive reuse of the nuclear structures once they
have been decontaminated. More than 90% of the structures and materials can be reused and recycled, since they are
not contaminated. The new uses may be associated with radioactivity in positive applications such as medicine,
research and education. Taking this premise, promoted since 2011, this paper studies the process of Vandellòs NPP’s
transformation into a cancer research and treatment center. Nuclear radiation is well-known to be cancer-causing;
However, we present this place, with a feasible opportunity of being converted into a cancer treatment center. In order
to reach this goal, an analysis of the site, the image of the nuclear power plant as a landmark, and the existing
structures (including type, orientation, surfaces, covered volume, etc.) is developed. In conclusion, we conduct this
research in order to avoid the demolition of these large concrete structures that have marked the landscape over the
years, presenting an image of radioactivity. If great structures of the past, such as Roman bridges, Greek temples,
Gothic cathedrals and Egyptian pyramids have been written into our history and still remain in our memory, the
inclusion of nuclear power plants, their main buildings and their contemporary adaptive reuses in strategic programs
that bring benefits to society, will ensure the continuity of that history.

Carlos Gonzalvo Salas (Zaragoza, Spain, 1991).

Architect, ETSA Rovira i Virgili University (2016). Assistant professor, “Urban Planning Instruments” (2018-19). A
member of the CAIT research group (Center for Integrated Analysis of the Territory) and Ph.D. candidate on
“Architecture on the first generation nuclear power plants in Spain” says their research activity is mainly focused on
the architecture and decommission processes of nuclear power plants in Spain. The most recently published scientific
papers are “La Arquitectura de las centrales nucleares (1963–72)”, Cuaderno de Notas (2019) and “Centrales
nucleares y patrimonio: El caso de la central nuclear de Vandellòs”, E-RPH (2019). I have taken part in the
international roundtables promoted by Nuclear Culture about nuclear wastes and deep time communication “Art and
radioactive waste storage in Belgium”, Hasselt (2017) and “Memory & future roundtable: the nuclear culture on the
memory and future of radioactive deep time”, Malmö (2018). I have given the following lectures in international
congresses: “Desmantelamiento de la central nuclear de Vandellòs-I”, Madrid (2016), “Ejercicio teórico sobre cómo
renovar el uso de la central nuclear de Vandellòs-I en un centro de protonterapia”, Lisboa (2016) and “Heritage and
industrial recycling. Regarding the case study, the Vandellòs village and nuclear power plant”, Malmö (2018). I have
worked with CAIT to develop culture and diffusion projects related to the Vandellòs NPP, “Proton therapy research
center in Vandellòs I NPP” (2018), and the "Petit Museu" (2019) museum showing the history and construction of the
plant and workers’ settlement.