In 1975 construction began in Mülheim-Kärlich on what was to be the only nuclear power plant in Rhineland-Palatinate; decommissioned in 1988 and dismantled from 2001, its cooling tower, taller than Cologne Cathedral, was a landmark and an eyesore, and its demolition a symbol of political polarisation over nuclear phase-out. Michael Bertram photographed the reactor looming between homes and factories to record the future past. Starting with the demolition, the book presents an inverted timeline in eighty-one black-and-white photographs: the object seems to rise before our eyes until, at the end of the series, five colour pictures appear.