[imagesource: YouTube / NBC News]

Everyone’s idea of a good time is different.

Do I actively seek out videos of power plants being blown up? No.

But, and I think you might agree with me here, there is “something soothing about the dull thud of explosions followed by a cloud of dust as fossil fuel infrastructure comes tumbling down”.

At least Gizmodo agrees with me, adding that watching ” smokestacks and cooling towers meant to stand the test of time being brought down with a few well-placed explosives is a spectacle”.

South Africa is very much in a situation where we cannot afford to have any of our power stations go down. Relax, because none of what you’re about to witness took place on our shores.

Let’s start with a demolition from last month.

Four towers of the Eggborough Power Station in Yorkshire, England, were blown up as part of a nine-month demolition operation:

Any time I see a demolition video I am legally bound to make a joke about that “Wesley Snipes is Demolition Man” eTV advert that ran for about 15 years.

Moving on, we have the Trojan Nuclear Plant:

Implosions, they’re not just for coal plants. Here’s Oregon’s Trojan Nuclear Plant going down in a pile of rubble in 2006. This news report also features some A+ vintage news footage, including an actual nuclear reactor core being shipped on a barge up the Columbia River, as well as a brief close-up of the explosions. This is peak implosion footage.

Down she goes:

If we focus on synchronicity as a key quality factor then look no further than the HF Lee Power Plant implosion:

The choreography of this implosion is absolutely incredible. If synchronised power plant implosions were an Olympic sport, this Goldsboro, North Carolina, implosion would be contending for the gold.

Every four years we become experts in those obscure Olympic sports. Why not for synchronised power plant implosions?

I think we all deserve one more.

This time, we’re giving props to the guy who is gutted they didn’t “do the horn” with the benefit of his voice in slow-motion later in the clip.

Behold the destruction of Brayton Point Power Plant, Massachusetts’ last coal plant:

Sadly we may never know what’s up with them not doing the horn.

It is a Friday, though, which softens the blow.

You can see nine additional demolition jobs here.

[source:gizmodo]