1969–1978: Nuclear Power Plants in Austria

The construction of a nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf an der Donau in Lower Austria was approved in 1969 by the one-party government of the ÖVP (Austrian People’s Party) under Federal Chancellor Josef Klaus. However, a debate about its dangers did not begin until 1976 when the one-party government of the Social Democrats under Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky planned to activate the power plant.

By the mid-1950s, the peaceful use of nuclear energy had already been advertised in Austria. It began with an exhibition at the Künstlerhaus in Vienna, which was initiated in the wake of the US Atoms for Peace programme. The Austrian State Treaty was signed only three months later, on 15 May 1955. On the same day, the Austrian Society for Atomic Energy Studies Ltd. was founded at the suggestion of the state-owned Verbund corporation. As early as 1960 though, a reactor was put into operation for research purposes in Seibersdorf near Vienna – with substantial financial and technical support from the US. In March 1962, an additional reactor followed, this time built by the US company General Atomic in Prater, and was used by the University of Vienna primarily for teaching and research purposes. There were no significant discussions about any of these reactors.

From 1969–1973 only the occasional expert protested against the government’s nuclear power plant programme. The first stirrings of public resistance took place in St. Pantaleon-Stein, on the Upper Austrian-Lower Austrian border, where a second nuclear power plant was planned. Local citizens collected 74,000 signatures against this initiative. But nationwide protests only came about in regard to the location of Zwentendorf. Unimpressed by these protests, the federal government under Bruno Kreisky decided on an energy plan that included at least three nuclear power plants until 1990 (Zwentendorf, St. Pantaleon–Stein und St. Andrä/Lavanttal). But the major discussion about the nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf would eventually change everything.