Anti-nuclear movement in Austria

The construction of the first Austrian nuclear power plant in Zwendendorf an der Donau , which is located about 30 kilometers upstream of the capital, Vienna , began in 1972. A boiling water-water reactor with a capacity of 700 MW was installed in the Zwendendorf NPP , which according to the initial plans was to generate about 10% of the Austrian electricity production ^[1] .

Many social groups opposed this technical innovation: they were both conservatives and leftist utopians and environmentalists. They organized themselves into a platform called “IÖAG - Initiative österreichischer Atomkraftwerksgegne” (transliteration: IOeAG) and issued a brochure called “Wie ist das mit den Atomkraftwerken wirklich?” ( Russian. What is really with these nuclear power plants? ). Then they also began to print the newspaper, which was funded by private donations.

However, in June 1978, the Austrian Chancellor of the Social Democratic Party, Bronu Kreisky, announced a referendum on the development of atomic energy , which was held on November 5 of the same year. The referendum showed a slight predominance of opponents of the construction of nuclear power plants. Almost two-thirds of eligible voters (3.26 million people) went to the polls and 49.5% voted in favor and 50.5% opposed the development of nuclear power.

Verbundkonzern, the owner of a network of water power plants in Austria, fearing a drop in electricity prices, also launched an advertising campaign a few months before the referendum. Newspapers published a series about the history of accidents at nuclear power plants in different countries of the world.

The Zwentendorf NPP was built, but it never processed nuclear energy into electricity. ^{[1] [2]}