It's hard to imagine Winden without its nuclear power plant. The plant is located on the edge of town near the Winden caves and is the area's largest employer.
Bernd Doppler was the driving force behind the construction of the power plant, which started in the 1950s. The discovery of two strangely-clad dead bodies on site wasn't even enough to halt construction. In 1986, the year of the Chernobyl disaster, Bernd Doppler retires as director of the plant. Claudia Tiedemann takes his place, becoming the first woman in charge of a German nuclear power plant. At the time, Bernd's son Helge is working there as a security guard.
In light of the nuclear phase-out, the Winden power plant is scheduled for decommission in 2020. Director Aleksander Tiedemann is managing the plant's shutdown. By 2052, the plant is in ruins and surrounded by a restricted zone. What happened here?
Accident and cover-up
In the summer of 1986, an accident occurs at the nuclear power plant. Bernd Doppler covers it up and puts the resulting radioactive waste in yellow barrels hidden in a cave. When Claudia Tiedemann discovers the accident in November 1986, Doppler pressures her not to go public with the information. She seals the cave with a welded iron door.
When the police search the nuclear power plant site in 2019 for signs of the missing children, the barrels are gone. Aleksander Tiedemann had them loaded onto a truck and driven elsewhere.
