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At the NPP Zwentendorf site sustainability is a recurring topic and also its history can be linked to different ideas of sustainability.

What sustainability narratives emerge from the NPP Zwentendorf case?

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Sociotechnical visions are

“collectively held and communicable schemata that represent future objectives and express the means by which these objectives will be realised”

(Berkhout 2006: 302)

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Nuclear power plants, by contrast, look orderly, clean, and contained, emitting no airborne carbon. But their contribution to climate sustainability rests to some degree on an erasure of underlying human and social networks: the labor of uranium miners (Hecht 2014), the above-ground wastes stored at distributed sites, the contaminated topsoil bags from Fukushima, and the potential leaks between civilian and military uses of nuclear materials (Jasanoff and Kim 2009).

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However important, ‘low carbon’ is but one attribute that power generation options should have in a sustainable energy future. The precise meaning of ‘sustainable energy future’ is contested, but the (non-)sustainability of energy options depends on their performance in delivering other policy objectives such as alleviating energy poverty, improving equity, reducing air pollution, enhancing energy security and securing economic wellbeing (Hugé et
al., 2011). (p.2)

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Abstract

In order to reconfigure global socio-economic systems to be compatible with social imperatives and planetary boundaries, a transition towards sustainable development is necessary. The multi-level perspective (MLP) has been developed to study long-term transformative change. This paper complements the MLP by providing an ontological framework for studying and understanding the role of narratives as the vehicle of meaning and intermediation between individual and social collective in the context of ongoing transitions. Narratives are established as an analytical entity to unpack how disturbances at the level of the socio-technical landscape are translated into and contribute to the transformation of socio-technical regimes. To illustrate and test the approach, it is applied to the case of the Fukushima catastrophe: The narratives in relation to nuclear power in Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom are scrutinized and it is explored how these narratives have co-determined the policy responses and thus influenced ongoing transformation processes in the power sectors of the respective countries.

Introduction

Starting from the Club of Rome's "limits to growth"-report [85] it has been increasingly evident that industrialised societies, their lifestyles, consumption patterns exceed what the planetary system can provide over the long run [94]. At the same time both within countries as well as in between countries great inequalities still exist. Basic human needs such as food, water, health and energy are not met for billions of people all over the world. The social foundations of our global society remain fragile [76]. In other words, our global socio-economic system is highly unsustainable and needs to be transformed.

More concretely, for the energy sector in order to abate dangerous climate change means that "[t]he stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations at low levels requires a fundamental transformation of the energy supply system, including the long-term phase‐out of unabated fossil fuel conversion technologies and their substitution by low-GHG alternatives".([63], p. 46).

This certainly is a daunting task, but it is often less an economic or technical problem than a political one. Take climate change as an example: Technical options to mitigate climate change and limit global warming to below 2 °C are available and the cost are considerably lower than many have expected and certainly much lower than the cost of inaction [63]. Still, change does not happen or at least not at the required speed. A reason is that the global economy is locked-in into unsustainable practices not only through the legacy of the infrastructures that have been built up in the past but also through political and institutional settings and processes that are resisting change [112].

It is this socio-political environment to the various production and consumption regimes and in particular industrial and manufacturing regimes [24], [110] that this paper is particularly interested in. The paper builds mainly on two strands of literature: (1) transition research, in particular the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) as an heuristic for understanding sociotechnical transformations, [36], [37] and (2) Structuration Theory which heavily influenced the development of the MLP [46], [107].

The MLP research framework separates three levels of transition analysis. The Regime level " is the rule-set or grammar embedded in a complex of engineering practices, production process technologies, product characteristics, skills and procedures, ways of handling relevant artefacts and persons, ways of-defining problems; all of them embedded in institutions and infrastructure." ([93], p. 338). Technological Niches " are spaces where networks of actors experiment with, and mutually adapt, greener organizational forms and eco-friendly technologies." ([100], p. 427). In these Niches, outside or at the fringe of the socio-technical Regime, novelties and innovations can emerge and mature under protected conditions [101]. The socio-technical Landscape level "forms a broad exogenous environment that as such is beyond the direct influence of regime and niche actors" ([42], p. 23).

A necessary condition for a successful socio-technical transformation in a given field is the existence of both successful innovation activities in niches and external pressure on the socio-technical regime coming from the landscape level: "There is no simple cause or driver in transitions. Instead, there is co-evolution within and between levels, i.e., processes at multiple dimensions and levels simultaneously. Transitions come about when these processes link up and reinforce each other." ([42], p. 27).

However, the three levels and their respective interactions have not received equal scholarly attention in the past. There is substantial literature available on niches: What the conditions are for creating a fertile soil for innovation in niches, how interactions between the niche and regime level can play out, and even how niches can be strategically managed to nurture innovation [80], [100], [68], [114], [79], [101], [46].

Interactions between the regime level and landscape level have received much less attention, though. In line with Grin et al. this article conceptualizes the socio-technical landscape as the universe of influences exogenous to the various co-existing socio-technical regimes [46]. The central questions this article addresses are the following: How is the socio-economic landscape reflected in socio-technological regimes? And how can changes in the landscape translate into socio-technical regimes?

The article sets out to explicitly integrate narratives in the conceptual framework of transition research. It introduces narratives as a key analytical entity (Section 2) and formulates a theoretical framework which helps to understand how narratives can influence and in fact co-determine everyday decision-making by regime actors (Section 3); it discusses how narratives contribute to delimiting the space of what is 'politically feasible', thus contribute to the inertia of regimes with respect to socio-technical change beyond technological and political potentials (Section 4). The usefulness of this conceptual approach is tested by applying it to the case of the Fukushima earthquake and the associated nuclear meltdown in the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant (Section 5). This landscape shock has had significant impact on the energy regime in Japan and energy regimes worldwide. The article illustrates how differences in discursively prominent narratives in Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom have co-determined policy responses with strong effects for the ongoing structural change of the socio-technical systems, specifically changes in the power sectors of these countries. The article concludes (Section 7) by evaluating the usefulness of the approach and developing ideas of how the narrative approach could be improved and expanded in the future.

Section snippets

Definition

What are narratives? In this article narratives are defined in line with Roe as simple stories that describe a problem, lay out its consequences and suggest (simple) solutions [95]. Incumbent actors typically formulate their basic patterns of arguments about the challenges confronting their respective socio-technical regimes in the form of narratives. Talking of narratives is essentially talking about meaning encoded in language. This language does not only represent the facts and objects under

Ontological framework-the micro-level

Structuration theory provides the foundation for the reflection of the role of narratives as vehicle of meaning and intermediators between the individual and the social collective. In the following section an excurse through the conceptual thicket of structuration theory is provided in order to lay the ontological foundation on which the proposed understanding of narratives in the context of socio-technical regime transitions builds.

To comprehend how socio-technical regime transitions come

Narratives and politics-the macro level

Leach et al. argue that the 'system framing' that actors in political representation apply co-determines the appraisal of certain types of policies and/or technologies that often rather consolidate the status quo than bring about the kind of change that is both transformative and directed towards a sustainable system [77]. By 'system-framing' they refer to "different ways of understanding or representing a system [...]. (T) he system boundaries, dynamics, functions and outcomes are always open

Methodology and material

In order to illustrate the functioning of narratives within socio-technical regimes, the article discusses how the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the subsequent catastrophic meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has served as a landscape shock.

The case was chosen deliberately as it is a widely known and well-researched event for which extensive literature exists. A historian approach is applied: "...[h]istorians rarely perform formal tests of theories.

Case Study-Fukushima, nuclear power and the renewable energy transition

The nuclear meltdown in Fukushima was the result of combination of the total station blackout, resulting from the earthquakes impact on the transmission lines and the automatic security shut-down of the nuclear plants, and the inundation of the emergency equipment as a result of the enormous tsunami that hit Fukushima after the earthquake. This combination led to a loss of cooling which, in turn, initiated cascading accidents and ultimately nuclear meltdowns in several reactors [29].

Some have

Concluding remarks

The application of a narrative perspective on the case of the Fukushima disaster and the consequent response in energy regimes in Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan has served to demonstrate the usefulness of the ontological framework for narratives in the context of transition theory developed in Sections 3 and 4. Paying close attention to the prevalence and structure of narratives has aided developing an understanding of the structuration of the socio-political environment to the power

Acknowledgements

This work was inspired by an earlier project funded by the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation. The author would like to thank the following people for their valuable feedback and advice in relation to this article: Mirjam Schoonhoven-Speijer, Professor Andy Stirling, Claus Seibt, Dr. Stefan Thomas, Christiane Beuermann, Dr. Hans-Jochen Luhmann, and three anonymous reviewers. All conclusions and any remaining errors are the author's own.

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The role of narratives in socio-technical transitions-Fukushima and the energy regimes of Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom

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In order to reconfigure global socio-economic systems to be compatible with social imperatives and planetary boundaries, a transition towards sustaina...

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A characteristic feature of political discourse is that it changes over time as new knowledge and understanding of issues emerge and as the actors involved in the discourse move on and or new actors become involved. The result is to enable coalitions of new alliances to emerge in a discourse with the potential to produce a new hegemony. In this chapter, questions are posed about the extent to which this has taken place in the nuclear energy discourse within the European Union since the 1950s. It is argued that energy security continues to hold the hegemonic position in the discourse and that, rather than being superseded by an alternative discourse, since the mid-2000s it has become increasingly linked with discourse on climate change, which has given the use of the technology a new credibility and acceptance.

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The changing fortunes of nuclear energy in the sustainability discours

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A characteristic feature of political discourse is that it changes over time as new knowledge and understanding of issues emerge and as the actors involved in

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Wiertz, Kuhn, Mattissek: Shifts in the German energy transition discourse in light of Russia's war against Ukraine

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The EU taxonomy from 2021 labels nuclear power generation as a bridging technology to attain the EU climate goals.

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Nuclear energy now provides about 10% of the world's electricity from about 436 power reactors, of which there were 103 nuclear power reactors left in operation in 12 EU member states in 2023 (IAEA 2023 (accessed: 12.8.2023)).

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What does a sustainable energy future look like?

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What does a sustainable energy future look like?

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low carbon?

supply security?

independent from energy and raw material imports?

affordable?

small-scale and bottom-up?

flexible?

...

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In the ‘Summary for Policymakers’ of the ‘Fifth Assessment Report’, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also labels nuclear power as a “mature low-GHG emission source of baseload power” that “could make an increasing contribution to low-carbon energy supply”, provided that a “variety of barriers and risks” are overcome.

(IPCC WGIII 2014: 23)

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"The world's safest nuclear power plant"

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"The world's safest nuclear power plant"

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-> it never went into operation

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The (un)sustainability of nuclear power: the recurrent changes in meaning of Zwentendorf in the context of historical events

Role of narratives in shaping socio-technical imaginaries -> What is considered a sustainable or desirable energy future?

The NPP Zwentendorf as a memorial of Austrian contemporary history can fuel, shape or direct discourses on sustainability

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Five. Keeping Technologies Out: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Formation of Austria's Technopolitical Identity

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Five. Keeping Technologies Out: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Formation of Austria's Technopolitical Identity was published in Dreamscapes of Modernity on page 103.

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National energy security or acceleration of transition? Energy policy after the war in Ukraine

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Piotr Żuk-professor of sociology and president of the Institute for Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy Foundation. His main research interes...

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Possibility to enter the very core of the nuclear power plant

Free guided tours twice weekly open to the wider public, 120 minutes, max. 25 participants, fully booked months in advance, minimum age: 16 years, not accessible for disabled persons

Free guided tours for schools

Paid private guided tours bookable

Tour guides work on freelance basis, no permanent staff except 2 employees for maintenance

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Marketing film for nuclear power from the 1970s (in German)

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Marketing film for nuclear power from the 1970s (in German)

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Skurriler Film im AKW Zwentendorf entdeckt | Skurriler Film aus den 70zigern im Keller des AKW Zwentendorf entdeckt. So sahen manche vor 40 Jahren die Zukunft der Kernenergie in Österreich - seht... | By EVN | Facebook

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Skurriler Film aus den 70zigern im Keller des AKW Zwentendorf entdeckt. So sahen manche vor 40 Jahren die Zukunft der Kernenergie in Österreich - seht...

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The nuclear power plant near the small village of Zwentendorf in Lower Austria is not just the only plant of its kind ever to have been built in Austria, and never used, it is also a highly symbolic place, both for contemporary politics and energy policies as well as for Austrian democracy in general. The perennial debate over the building of the AKW Zwentendorf really is a perfect illustration of people power.

The decision to build the power plant was made in 1971, and construction got underway on 4 April 1972. Between 1973 and 1978 technical equipment, cooling pumps, heating elements and reactor containments with a total weight of more than 1,110 tonnes were delivered and installed. The 1,500 windowless rooms of the plant are enclosed by a 1.2 m thick reinforced concrete exterior wall: a solid casing for hazardous content. Altogether more than 14 bn Austrian Schillings, approximately 1 bn euros, were spent on the construction.

Shortly after completion, the commissioning was halted because of a groundbreaking national referendum held on 5 November 1978. The campaign group 'Österreichische Atomkraftwerksgegner (IÖAG)' with up to half a million members had been established three years earlier, in 1975, giving rise to the anti-nuclear movement. Several campaigns and stubborn resistance such as a hunger strike in front of the Austrian parliament finally forced chancellor Bruno Kreisky to hold a referendum. With exactly 1,606,308 votes against the nuclear power plant, i.e. 50.47%, the result of the referendum could not have been closer. The rejection also led to the so-called Atomsperrgesetz in December 1978, a law which forbids any future steps aimed at building nuclear power plants without first consulting the country's citizens.

Over the next seven years, until 1985, the owners, a group comprised of different energy companies, kept the plant with its 200 employees in a state of preservation, i.e. potentially in working condition. The nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in 1986 ended their hopes of ever again operating the plant. After this historical outcome, the AKW Zwentendorf was finally shut down. Over the next few years, different suggestions were made for its further use: the world-renowned artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser thought about a museum for misleading technologies, and the businessman Robert Rogner wanted to transform it into an experience world.

Forty years later the former nuclear power plant now operates as an event and festival location - and as a movie backdrop. Public interest remains strong. EVN, its new owner and operator, has more than ten thousand visitors a year for their guided tours. After the plant was bought by the EVN energy company in 2005, EVN not only began to provide guided tours, but it also installed a photovoltaic research centre in collaboration with the Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien). As a complete plant the AKW Zwentendorf is also used as a training centre for nuclear power employees from all over the world. Even the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) uses it for annual workshops. And, last but not least, the plant has also served as a spare parts depot for identical nuclear power plants in Germany.

Researcher Joshua Koeb

Interview with Mario Scalet

Journalist

https://nonument.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Mario-Scalet_Journalist.mp3 Transcription

In 1998, on the 20th anniversary of the referendum, a colleague and I did a series of articles on the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant. It was incredibly interesting and very exciting. Of course we drove out to the nuclear power plant to take a look at it. The moment we set foot inside the building it was really spooky, and bizarre. In fact we were shown around by the man who, in 1978, had been appointed as director to run the power plant. He was still convinced the whole thing could go online at any time. And when we entered the plant, there was a humming noise, which took us a bit by surprise. It sounded like it was already up and running. And we were told it was. But it was being supplied with electricity from the outside, so all the parts... well, everything inside was brand new. Some of the instrument panels were still inside their packaging. It was all being preserved, either ready for commissioning, which seemed very unlikely at that point. But more likely to supply spare parts to nuclear power plants of a similar design in Germany; I think there are two or three of them. - For me it was also very exciting emotionally. I remember I was only eight years old in 1978. But I'd been all kitted out from head to foot with 'Nuclear Power - No Thanks!' paraphernalia and a T-shirt by my older siblings. And I can still remember the day very well. For my father it was a victory over 'Red [Socialist] Vienna'. For us youngsters it was an important decision for our future. And when you consider 1986, and other incidents too, it was fortunately the right decision.

Interview with Stefan Zach

EVN Employee

https://nonument.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Stefan-Zach_EVN.mp3 Transcription

I fell in love with this nuclear power plant more than twenty years ago. I fell under its spell the very first time I came here to visit. All the different rooms, all the technology packed inside, the infinite solitude of it all. There was only one person working here at the time. And it really was an abandoned place, actually a lost space. And I wanted to share this fascination, this enthusiasm for these premises with others. Back then the power plant still had eight different proprietors. Only around 11% of the power plant belonged to NEWAG, EVN's predecessor company. Over the years we then acquired our partners' stakes . Then, in 2005, 100%. Since then we've been able to implement and put on a lots of things here. - We had a number of plans for things we wanted to do with this location. The first thing we did was set up an international safety training centre. We feel that, at that time, Zwentendorf contributed in its own small way to nuclear reactor safety in Europe. The second thing we did was make Zwentendorf a place for renewable energy, which is why in 2009 we installed a photovoltaic installation here, on the façade, on the roof, and on the outer surface. We significantly expanded the installation in 2011 as a citizens' participation model. Today, Zwentendorf uses sunlight to generate electricity, which in my view makes it a very fine symbol of a future shaped by renewables. - The other thing I was desperate to do was make this wonderful slice of contemporary Austrian history accessible to visitors. Getting there was no easy task as the plant was in a very sorry state when we took it over. Now the guided tours are always booked up months in advance. It's a huge hit: people are enthralled, and the demand, the desire to take a look at it all, increases from year to year. - We've also marketed Zwentendorf as a movie location for film productions, and more and more as a venue. - So, yes, it's certainly an unusual place. Seminars and workshops on the theme of 'failure' are also held here. Zwentendorf is certainly a place where there's lots to talk about on that subject. For decades everything people came up with for this location ended up failing. And Zwentendorf was a place which, like no other, attracted weird and wonderful people and projects for many years.

Interview with Willi S

Former Activist

https://nonument.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Willi-S_Former-activist.mp3 Transcription

In 1977 I was studying pharmacy in Graz. And even back then there was already an eco-movement in Graz. We handed out leaflets at the university canteen. So people knew a nuclear power plant was being built in Zwentendorf. There were even plans for a second one, in St. Partenion, which is in [the province of] Carinthia. - The profitability of it all was being called into question. Ok, so you produce energy, but then what about the fuel rods? What do you do with the fuel rods, and where would they be stored? So when you added up the total costs, there was no way for us that it was going to pay off. So, for us, it wasn't at all clear why Austria of all countries had to have a nuclear power plant at any cost. - So we were against it. Then there was a demo, at the Ballhausplatz. Activists converged on Vienna from all over Austria. I remember it well: we all travelled up in a brightly coloured VW bus; I had much longer hair at the time and looked a bit sheepish - and then there we were, on Ballhausplatz. Ballhausplatz is where the federal chancellor and the federal president have their seat. And the activists set up camp there, on Heldenplatz, that is. There must have been, what, ten thousand people, I don't really know any more. And of course there was chanting. The Left also got involved. It was in the papers afterwards that the whole thing had been infiltrated. - We really enjoyed it. And of course it was also a bit of an event. People got together, chatted, and then somehow we travelled back to Graz and we thought, yep, we've pulled it off this time. But that's not how things turned out. Instead, the federal chancellor Bruno Kreisky refused to take any notice of the demo and kept hoping he would get the momentum he needed from industry. In other words, that the plant really would open and go online. - So he really coupled his politics with this Yes/No to Zwentendorf decision and hoped that those who agreed with his politics would also vote in favour of the nuclear power plant. But he underestimated the whole thing and, in the end, the referendum went the other way, in other words, marginally in favour of a 'No' to Zwentendorf. And that was it.

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The nuclear power plant near the small village of Zwentendorf in Lower Austria is not just the only plant of its kind ever to have been built in Austria, and never used, it is also a highly symbolic place, both for contemporary politics and energy policies as well as for Austrian democracy in general.

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For employees of foreign nuclear power plants (3 identical plants in Germany): dry training, emergencies, dismantling

For emergency services, firefighters, police units,…

International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA, headquartered in Vienna) holds annual workshops

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Ahead of the decommissioning of Germany's last nuclear power plant in 2023, pro-nuclear voices have become louder again in the context of high energy prices and pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet the Paris Agreement.

Japan recently decided to restart its oldest NPP that hasn't been in operation since 2011.

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The Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky (social-democratic party) linked the outcome of the referendum to its political future because he expected it to secure a positive outcome of the referendum. The Austrian people’s party which was in favor of the NPP originally, then started to campaign against it. After the referendum, Kreisky did not resign despite the negative outcome.

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Sustainability - Production of renewable energy?

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Sustainability - Production of renewable energy?

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The NPP delivers 100 % sustainable and environmentally friendly energy.

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Solar power generation

2009 Photovoltaic research project in collaboration with the Technical University, Vienna: Installation of 1000 solar panels

2012 Solar power generation as citizen participation model: Installation of 1300 solar panels

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„Climate protectors are everyday heroes“

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The public discourse on 'energy security' has recently gained momentum with the war in Ukraine and the sharp rise in oil and gas prices.

Similar to lignite, domestic nuclear power is experiencing a discur-sive revival since it could supposedly promote both energy indepen-dence and climate protection.

Wiertz et al. 2022, p.6

In terms of the impact of the war in Ukraine on national energy policies around the world, the renaissance of nuclear energy in some countries can be seen as a manifestation of energy policies aimed at 'national energy security' - as opposed to 'accelerating energy transition' (Żuk and Żuk, 2022).

The tour guide described how in the wake of the energy crisis, visitors repeatedly asked whether it was possible to switch on the nuclear power plant - before that, this was rather unusual according to its observations.

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This billion-euro nuclear reactor was never switched on

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(Victor Hugo) The Nuclear Power Plant Zwentendorf: Austrian contemporary history and a lesson in Austrian politics. Zwentendorf is the world's only nuclear power plant to have been completed but never put into operation due to the outcome of a national referendum. Zwentendorf is certainly a captivating place.

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Nuclear power plant AKW Zwentendorf CNN report by Florian Danner

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Zwentendorf is probably the best place in Europe in which to study a nuclear power station, although no electric power was ever generated there. It was built as the first of three projected nuclear power stations in Austria. It was completed, but was never put into operation after a referendum of 4 April 1978 rejected the use of nuclear power in Austria. Construction, which involved several Austrian companies, began in 1972 but after two weeks the foundations were severely damaged by an earthquake. The power station was intended to have an output of 692 megawatts, its chimney was 110 m high, and it cost one billion Euros.

After the referendum parts of the power station were taken down and some spare parts were taken to three similar plants in Germany. A thermal power station was built nearby and the remainder of the nuclear plant was used for research, security training and as a venue for filming. A solar power facility was built on site from 2009.

The plant is open to visitors but only on guided tours that must be booked in advance. Visitors can see the whole of the plant, including the top of the inner core of the reactor, which is safe since it has never been in operation. The tours also include the control centre, the rod insertion mechanisms, the reactor hall and the turbine hall. Ironically the introductory presentation includes a documentary film made before the referendum of 1978 predicting that nuclear power would bring prosperity to Austria.

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Zwentendorf is probably the best place in Europe in which to study a nuclear power station, although no electric power was ever generated there. It was built as the first of three projected nuclear power stations in Austria. It was completed, but ...

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APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER

Ambiente, 4. November 2018

18. Juni 2019, 11:22

Stattdessen wird das Gebäude mittlerweile anders mehrfach genutzt: Als Schulungsreaktor und Trainingscenter, in dem in realer Umgebung geübt werden kann. Darüber hinaus diente der Doch-nicht-Reaktor mittlerweile bereits als Location für Modeschauen und Musikvideos, wie auch als Drehort für abendfüllende Filme. Und seit 2009 wird mit 1.000 Photovoltaikpanelen am alten Atomkraftwerk Energie erzeugt. Saubere Energie. Energie ohne nukleare Strahlung. Das Atomkraftwerk, das nie in Betrieb ging, kann bei kostenfreien Führungen besichtigt werden.

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Reaktor schauen. Ein Besuch im AKW Zwentendorf

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Seit 30 Jahren ist das Atomkraftwerk Zwentendorf ein Stück österreichischer Zeitgeschichte und quasi ein weltweites Mahnmal. Pläne, das leerstehende Bauwerk für ein Historyland zu nutzen, wurden eb...

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Sustainability - Role of civil society? 

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Sustainability - Role of civil society? 

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Successful protest movement
In 1975, a large wave of protests began in the Vorarlberg region of Austria and soon spread. The public debate became very emotional and the protests quickly gained momentum, leading to the government's decision to hold a referendum. On 6 November 1978, 50.4% voted against the construction of the plant. The Zwentendorf protest is considered the birth of the Austrian Green movement.

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Song of protest movement: Schmetterlinge - Liebesgrüße aus Österreich

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Song of protest movement: Schmetterlinge - Liebesgrüße aus Österreich

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Song "Love greetings from Austria" paying tribute to the protest movement

Now things have turned out quite differently
Who would have thought it
We have taken matters into our own hands
And put a spoke in their wheel

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Die Schmetterlinge - Liebesgrüße aus Österreich, aus "Herbstreise - Lieder zur Lage", 1979

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"The unresolved issue of very long-lived radioactive waste should, therefore, be a sufficient reason to make nuclear energy production incompatible with the DNSH principle and hence excluded from being listed as a sustainable activity." (p. 15)

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Getting local communities to accept a geological repository for nuclear waste in their neighbourhood certainly remains a challenge, which entails in most (democratic) countries longstanding participatory processes with stakeholders with an uncertain outcome.

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Contemporary history has led to significant changes in the meaning of the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant in the public perception and the political agenda.

1972 Start of construction

1975 Formation of larger anti-nucleat protest movement

1977 Construction completed, technical approval, first delivery of fuel rods

1978 Referendum (50,47% vote against the nuclear power plant to enter into operation)

1978 Law passed that prohibits the use of nuclear energy in Austria (Atomsperrgesetz)

1978-85 The NPP is preserved and kept ready for operation

1985 Slow beginning of liquidation, sales of parts and machines to same-type plants in Germany

1986 Chernobyl catastrophe ends hopes for reactivation of site

2005 EVN buys out remaining shares held by other energy companies and takes full ownership

2009 Start of solar power research project

2010 Opening the site to the wider public, offering weekly guided tours

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Podcast about the history of Zwentendorf (in German)

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Podcast about the history of Zwentendorf (in German)

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GAG45: Zwentendorf - Das sicherste Kernkraftwerk der Welt - Geschichten aus der Geschichte

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In den 1970er Jahren soll in Österreich, nur 40 Kilometer Luftlinie von Wien entfernt, das erste österreichische Kernkraftwerk in Betrieb gehen. Der Bau ist fertiggestellt, die Brennstäbe sind geliefert, doch die erste (und unglaublich knappe) Volksabstimmung der 2. Republik und die sich formierende Umweltbewegung machen dem Kanzler Kreisky einen Strich durch die Rechnung.

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Newspaper about Save the world awards, 2009 (in German)

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Newspaper about Save the world awards, 2009 (in German)

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Zwentendorf - Was ist wichtiger? Die Rettung der Welt und der Menschen oder der Tod eines Superstars? Auf dem "Green Carpet" vor dem nie in Betrieb genommenen Atomkraftwerk Zwentendorf drehte es sich beim Defilee der Teilnehmer der ersten "Save the World Awards" eher um Letzteres. Hatte doch Veranstalter Georg Kindel kurzfristig beschlossen, die Zeremonie dem Ende Juni verstorbenen Michael Jackson zu widmen.

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Der tote Superstar und die Rettung der Welt

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Im Atomkraftwerk Zwentendorf drehte sich Freitagabend alles um Michael Jackson - Der Hintergrund der Sozial- und Umweltpreise des "Save the World Award" ging dabei fast verloren

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Movie trailer: Grand Central, 2014 (with Lea Seydoux)

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Movie trailer: Grand Central, 2014 (with Lea Seydoux)

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Sustainability - Absence of future burden?

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Sustainability - Absence of future burden?

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Definition of sustainability by the Brundlandt commisssion (1987): "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"

The question of storage of nuclear waste remains largely unsolved -> nuclear power production creates problems that need to be dealt with in the future

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At this point, you can end presentation mode and scroll through the following sections that contain links to related scientific literature, further information and trivia.

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Berkhout 2006: Normative expectations in system innovations