Thirty-nine years after Chernobyl, there is nothing that has not been said about the biggest nuclear accident in human history. That is why, on this day, we will draw an analogy between two referendums on nuclear power stations. One is taking place in Bulgaria 27 years after Chernobyl. The other is in Austria, eight years before the Chernobyl accident. The result in this country is clear – passing interest. The first referendum in Bulgaria’s democratic history ended on the brink of failure – with about 20 percent participation and 60 percent answering “yes” to the question “Should nuclear energy be developed in Bulgaria by building a new nuclear power plant?”. At the same time, the referendum in Austria caused a real storm of debate in society, and the result – 50.47% – against the start of the Zwentendorf NPP’s operation, changed the overall Austrian energy policy in the coming years.
We offer you two articles on the topics published in the publication of the Public Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development – in. “List, in 2013 and in 2014:
Fuel imports for nuclear power plants make the price of nuclear power unpredictable (January 2013):
Uranium-235 reserves in nature are very limited, and to be used in nuclear power plants it must be enriched from 0.75 to 3.5%. This is done in the world by only a few countries. No one can say how much the enriched uranium we will have to import will cost in years to come. This was stated by the manager of “3K” JSC, Kolyu Oreshkov. The energy expert took part in the discussion on the future of nuclear energy organized by the Public Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PCESD) at the Festival and Congress Centre. “The energy we will use to build Belene NPP will be produced after 20 years of operation of the nuclear power plant. On top of that, we will put in a clanking mepanism,” said Oreshkov, whose professional career started at Kozloduy NPP. In his words, our country has too small a territory, and there is no technological solution for the disposal of nuclear waste from the operation of nuclear power plants.
The risk that accompanies the operation of any nuclear power plant is one of the most neglected topics in the debates ahead of the referendum on Sunday, said the chairman of the UECSD, Ilian Iliev. That is why the meeting began with the screening of six short films by filmmaker Alain de Allo, depicting the changing lives of six Japanese families after the ill-fated accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Iliev drew a parallel with the events at home in May 1986 after the Chernobyl accident. Back then, unsuspecting people, in the square in front of the Cathedral in Varna, waved the Bulgarian tricolour and chanted “BCP – CPSU – eternal friendship”. Older contemporaries of the Chernobyl catastrophe, but with much shorter memories, had come to the Press Centre, not to listen, but to provoke the organisers of the debate.
Iliev clarified that unlike the political parties and committees that took 2 million BGN to agitate in favor of the construction of the nuclear facilities, the OCESD organized the meeting entirely with its own efforts and resources just to objectively inform the citizens.
NPP – museum
Why a nuclear power plant never goes into operation or how the Austrians will get them (July, 2014)
This is a story that sounds unbelievable, but is very real. That’s why it should be known, remembered, and better yet, seen. It is very easy to speak out against nuclear power after Chernobyl and Fukushima, but this happened 8 years before the Chernobyl accident.
In the 1970s, Austria built its first and only nuclear power plant to date. It is located on the Danube River, in the province of Lower Austria, near Vienna. In 1978, the Zwentendorf reactors were ready for start-up, the fuel was brought in and unity remained to cut the ribbon. Opponents of nuclear power, who were then a fairly small minority of Austrian society compared with today, demanded a referendum for or against the operation of the plant. The investor and the government were almost completely convinced of the positive outcome of the referendum and readily allowed it. The controversy surrounding the question of whether or not to produce electricity from the nuclear power plant stirred up such a fierce controversy in Austrian society that it led to the separation of many families, who to this day do not speak to each other. The results of a referendum that thwarted the plant’s start-up were 49.53% in favour and 50.47% against. The small margin of 30 000 votes changed Austrian energy policy in a sustainable way in the years to come. Purely statistically, it is curious that the Austrians living in the area of the plant say ‘yes’, while the majority of the others are against. After the Chernobyl accident, however, the majority of Austrians are convinced that they have made the right decision.
How do the Austrians manage without nuclear power?
Austria is one of the main producers of hydroelectric power in Europe. The most important power companies are state-owned – 50% of the shares of the major private producers are owned by municipalities. Although Austria is a country surrounded entirely by land, with a specific hilly topography, the weather conditions allow the extraction of energy from wind. The first statistics on wind power date back to the early 1980s, revealing a surprising annual output of approximately 6,600 to 10,000 gigawatt hours. Austria ranks 17th in the world for wind energy production after Ireland and ahead of Greece. As early as 1980, large-scale private measurements and experiments with wind energy extraction were being carried out. In 1994, a 110 kilowatt-hour wind turbine was tested in St. Helena. In 1995, the first wind turbine was put into operation in Mickelbach. According to the manufacturers, the life expectancy of a wind turbine is up to 25 years. Typically, most wind turbines are owned by farmers, although the price they pay for them is many times their family income. A wind turbine needs an area of up to 500 square meters, and the surrounding land can be cultivated without problems.
The advantages of wind power are the reduction of the need to import electricity from abroad, thus strengthening the local economy. Just like water and wood, it relies on the natural resources extracted in Austria’s rural areas. Wind turbines provide the longest-lasting energy possible without polluting the environment.
