WHEN Didcot Power Station’s remaining three cooling towers are blasted to smithereens pensioner Lyn Bowen will miss them more than most.
The 79-year-old from East Hanney near Wantage switched on coal-fired Didcot A power station in September 30, 1970.
Then in March 2013, he was asked to switch off the power station and did so dressed in the boiler suit he once wore for the Central Energy Generating Board.
Didcot A closed as part of a nationwide switch to gas-fired power stations, which are more eco-friendly and first three of the six 325ft cooling towers were blown up during the early hours of Sunday, July 27, 2014.
Now owners RWE have confirmed that the three remaining cooling towers will be reduced to rubble in a controlled explosion on Sunday between 6am and 8am.
Engineers for contractors Brown and Mason will be in charge of the explosion.
Mr Bowen said: “When the last three cooling towers go it will totally change the landscape - Didcot is not a pretty place and it’s possible that houses price will go up.
READ AGAIN: Didcot Power Station switched off by the man who switched it on“I will miss seeing the cooling towers but what I really miss is the loss of our industrial base.
“These huge industries have gone and the last three towers going are a symbol of an era that has gone.”
When Mr Bowen switched off the power station in 2013 he gave a thumbs-down to staff because he said it ‘felt negative’, adding at the time: “Didcot A should not close – it should go on for a few years yet because the country is desperate for power.”
He said he has now ‘completely absolved himself’ of links with the power station and was still not convinced by the alternatives to coal, describing wind farms and solar power as ‘a joke’.
READ AGAIN: Lyn wants the power to blow up first towerOn Sunday an exclusion zone will be set up around the site to protect workers and neighbouring residents.
Thousands of people gathered at vantage points to see the first three of the six 325ft cooling towers blown up during the early hours of Sunday, July 27, 2014.
The power station became the scene of tragedy in 2016 when four men died as they prepared the boiler house for demolition.
READ MORE: Man jumped on cars and wielded knife in frenzied rampageThe power station chimney will be demolished separately in early autumn, on a date yet to be revealed.
Gas-fired Didcot B still operates.
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