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The Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant was the first commercial nuclear plant for electric power generation built in
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, of three nuclear plants originally envisioned. Construction of the plant at
Zwentendorf Zwentendorf an der Donau is a small market municipality in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is located at , in the Tulln Basin on the southern bank of the Danube. The place attained public attention as the site of the only Austrian nuclear ...
was finished but the plant never entered service. The start-up of the Zwentendorf plant, as well as the construction of the other two plants, was prevented by a referendum on 5 November 1978, in which a narrow majority of 50.47% voted against the start-up.Austria's no to nuclear power
Peter Weish
Austria‘s Anti-Nuclear Crusade
Euro Nuclear
Construction of the plant began in April 1972, as a boiling-water reactor rated at 692 megawatts electric power output. It was built by a joint venture of several Austrian electric power companies. The initial cost of the plant was around 5.2 billion
Austrian schilling The schilling (German language, German: ''Schilling''; ) is a former currency of Austria from 1925 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1999, and the circulating currency until 2002. The euro was introduced at a fixed parity of €1 = 13.7603 schilling t ...
, approximately 1.4 billion euros adjusted for inflation. The ventilation stack chimney of the plant is 110 metres tall. Since the plebiscite, the plant has been partially deconstructed. The
Dürnrohr Power Station The Dürnrohr power station is a thermal power station in Lower Austria. The power station was built as a replacement for the Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Station, a plant that was finished but due to a 1978 referendum never started up. The Dürnro ...
was built nearby as a replacement
thermal power station A thermal power station, also known as a thermal power plant, is a type of power station in which the heat energy generated from various fuel sources (e.g., coal, natural gas, nuclear fuel, etc.) is converted to electrical energy. The heat ...
. Following the 1978 referendum, no commercial nuclear power plant (built for the purpose of producing electricity) ever went into operation in Austria. In 1978, Austria enacted a law prohibiting the construction and operation of fission reactors for electrical power generation, hence the plant nowadays is used for research purposes. Three small nuclear reactors for scientific purposes were built in the 1960s, and only one of these plants is still being operated.


Current use

The plant was purchased by Austrian energy company
EVN Group EVN Group is an Austrian-based producer and transporter of electricity, one of the largest in Europe having over three million customers in 14 countries. The company also operates in water treatment, natural gas supply and waste management bus ...
in 2005; it is used as a security training centre and leased for filming, photography, and other events. In 2025, it will be used as the training ground for ENRICH European Robotics
Hackathon A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of '' hacking'' and ''marathon'') is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 h ...
. In association with the Technical University Vienna, a research center (the ''Photovoltaik-Forschungszentrum Zwentendorf'') was founded at the site. The research center is equipped with a 190 kW photovoltaic system consisting of two modules with solar tracking assemblies. The plant is used for operator training by Kraftwerksschule e.V. The current operator of the plant also allows visits to the complex.


Use in film

The Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant has been leased out over the years as a film location for films including ''Grand Central'', '' Tag der Wahrheit'', '' Restrisiko'', and ''
Hacking at Leaves Hacking at Leaves is a 2024 Austrian documentary film directed and written by Johannes Grenzfurthner. It explores various themes including the United States' colonial past, Navajo tribal history, and the hacker culture, hacker movement, through th ...
''.


Gallery

Save The World Awards 2009 show15 - Zwentendorf.jpg, The Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant during the Save the World Awards in 2009 AKW_Zwentendorf_inside_1.jpg, Control rod mechanism on the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel of the Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant AKW_Zwentendorf_inside_2.jpg, View into the reactor pressure vessel AKW_Zwentendorf_inside_3.jpg, Low pressure turbines AKW_Zwentendorf_inside_4.jpg, Control panel in the control room of the plant Behind-the-scenes image from the 'Hacking at Leaves' film shoot featuring Johannes Grenzfurthner at the chimney of Zwentendorf nuclear power station in 2020.jpg, Door to chimney of the power station (behind-the-scenes image from the 'Hacking at Leaves' film shoot, 2020) Zwentendorf pv display.jpg, Real-time display of the power generated by the photovoltaic plant at Zwentendorf


See also

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Anti-nuclear movement in Austria Construction of the first Austrian nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf on the Danube, about 30 kilometres upstream from the capital, Vienna, began in 1972. Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant was designed as a boiling water reactor with a capacity of 7 ...
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Freda Meissner-Blau Freda Meissner-Blau (11 March 1927 – 22 December 2015) was an Austrian politician, activist, and prominent figurehead in the Austrian environmental movement. She was a founder and the federal spokesperson of the Austrian Green Party. Early li ...
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Frieda Berryhill Frieda Berryhill (1922 – 20 June 2012) was an American anti-nuclear and peace activist. Berryhill was born in Waidhofen an der Ybbs, Austria, during the turbulent times after World War I and the economic crisis bringing right-wing movements to p ...
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Nuclear power phase-out A nuclear power phase-out is the discontinuation of usage of nuclear power for energy production. Often initiated because of Politics of nuclear power, concerns about nuclear power, phase-outs usually include shutting down nuclear power plants ...


References


External links


Nuclear power plant Zwentendorf websiteVirtual 3D tour through the plant
Foto360.at
React!Reactor! Martin Küchen at NPP
- saxophone play in the power plant, 10th Oct 2013, YouTube video {{Coord, 48.3544, N, 15.8847, E, source:kolossus-nowiki, display=title Economy of Lower Austria Nuclear power stations in Austria Aus