The moss is already growing on the dome of the Brokdorf nuclear power plant.
The Elbe passes by in a dirty gray-brown color, the operational buildings of the most powerful German nuclear power plant protrude into a storm-disheveled sky.
It is the last major power plant between Hamburg and the Danish border.
Viewed from the dike, it seems as if the facility has already been abandoned.
E.on subsidiary PreussenElektra is still getting 1480 megawatts of electricity from fuel rods full of uranium dioxide.
But by the end of next year there will be an end to nuclear power here too. And Brokdorf is one of the last three nuclear power plants in Germany to go offline. Then wind turbines in particular should provide Germany's power supply.