The Abandoned Nuclear Power Plant near Cienfuegos

Before the trip, one question haunted me—would we make it into the abandoned nuclear power plant near Cienfuegos? Online reports warned that entry was impossible, so I had given up hope, wild and doubtful. But at the Wunderwelten Photo Fair in Friedrichshafen, someone gave a talk about Cuba and said he had entered twice without control in 2015—suddenly hope and a thrill sparked, a contrast between resignation and curiosity.

A clever timing

In the morning, Cienfuegos was bustling—after Fidel’s death, anyone could sign the official condolence book, and the city was full of people and police officers who didn’t have to work. A good moment, we thought, to drive to the power plant—perhaps with so much attention there would be fewer guards. Construction of the plant stopped shortly before completion when the USSR collapsed and the main supporter vanished. Since then, the reactor with its surrounding buildings and the once-planned employee town has been decaying, a spectacle of decline.

An unexpected entry

At the destination, we negotiated for a long time with a gatekeeper in broken Spanish—and suddenly he showed us a way! We parked off to the side in the bushes and, thanks to offline navigation, found a footpath to the plant. The reactor itself was inaccessible—a new security company had built a wall and presumably started demolition work to block it. But the nearby buildings and cooling systems were reachable, a hint of thrill and discovery, raw and fascinating.