Beznau (Switzerland): Europe’s oldest functioning nuclear reactor, at Switzerland’s Beznau plant, will turn 50 next week — a lifespan deemed dangerously long by environmentalists who are demanding that it be shut down immediately.
Commercial operation began at the plant in the northern canton of Aargau, near the German border, on December 9, 1969 — back when The Beatles were still together and a man had just walked on the Moon.
Fifty years later, a message in German is printed in white letters on a bright blue wall of the building housing Reactor 1: “Anniversary 1969-2019. 355,000 hours of service”.
