Here you have a nice view of what is probably the safest nuclear power plant in the world.

On April 4, 1972, the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction project "nuclear power plant Zwentendorf", which had been decided a year earlier by the general assembly of the joint nuclear power plant Tullnerfeld. On February 15, 1972, excavation began at the construction site. The cost of construction was around 8,466 million Schilling (1979) The type of nuclear power plant corresponded to a boiling water reactor. The bottleneck capacity was designed for 730 megawatts.
In the summer of 1977, protest demonstrations also took place in Austria, strongly influenced by the opponents of nuclear power plants in West Germany. In the session of the National Council on July 7, 1978, a resolution was passed on a draft law which in any case bound the further use of nuclear energy to the approval of the National Council and provided for a referendum.
The referendum of November 5, 1978 ended with a participation of around two-thirds of those eligible to vote with 50.5% against and 49.5% for the commissioning. In Zwentendorf, the majority of the population voted in favor of commissioning.

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Ute Böker

November 2, 2025

Why do I just not feel comfortable near nuclear power plants?

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Karawankenbär

May 13, 2020

Austrian contemporary history and a lesson in Austrian politics. Zwentendorf was the only nuclear power plant in the world to be completed, but never put into operation due to a referendum. Zwentendorf is a place that fascinates.
The 1976 energy plan provided for the construction of a total of THREE nuclear power plants in Austria on the Danube. One should be in St. Pantaleon-Erla / St. Valentin will be erected on the border between Lower Austria and Upper Austria, for which the areas had already been purchased and another in the Eferdingen basin, where no specific location had yet been determined. A reactor should also be built in St. Andrä in Kärnten. Already in the 1960s, an area next to the Drava was designated for a nuclear power plant.
As a result, the non-commissioning in December 1978 led to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act, according to which no nuclear power plants may be built in the future without a referendum. This law was tightened in 1999 by the Federal Constitutional Law for a Nuclear-Free Austria, which has constitutional status - since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, anti-nuclear policy has been unanimous in society and in party politics.

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Location: Zwentendorf an der Donau, Bezirk Tulln, Mostviertel, Lower Austria, Austria

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Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant

1. Bärndorfer Hut – Pedestrian bridge over the river loop from Altenwörth

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