Sad anniversary

“Chernobyl disaster a clear warning against nuclear power plants!”

On April 26, 1986, a radioactive cloud spread across Europe from the exploded reactor block in Chernobyl.(Bild: -, ZUFAROV)

Tomorrow marks the 38th anniversary of the devastating accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In view of the expansion plans close to our borders, Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner warns against a dangerous renaissance of nuclear power and calls for an energy transition.

On April 26, 1986, the darkest chapter in the use of nuclear energy in Europe was opened. At 1.23 a.m., a reactor block at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, sending a radioactive cloud over large parts of the continent - Lower Austria was also affected by the fallout.

Danger for generations
"Tomorrow's anniversary of this disaster in particular should be a reminder that nuclear power cannot be the future of energy," explains Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Governor of Lower Austria. Apart from the enormous dangers of accidents like the one in Chernobyl, nuclear fission produces waste that is problematic to store for many generations.

Nuclear waste poses dangers for many generations(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

Nuclear reactor close to Lower Austria
In this light, the expansion plans for the Dukovany and Temelin nuclear power plants in the Czech Republic close to Lower Austria should be clearly rejected: "Nuclear power must not experience a renaissance, especially not in the heart of Europe," emphasized Mikl-Leitner.

Nuclear power plant in a combat zone
She also looks with great concern at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which has often been at the center of hostilities in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine: "There you can clearly see the great dangers posed by nuclear power plants." Mikl-Leitner draws a very clear conclusion from this: "The future belongs to sustainably produced energy."

Johanna Mikl-Leitner and Stephan Pernkopf(Bild: HELMUT FOHRINGER)

Energy transition brings security
The Governor agrees with her deputy and party colleague Stephan Pernkopf on this point. "For us in Lower Austria, it is clear that nuclear power has no future," he also emphasizes. That is why the region between Enns and Leitha has been committed to the energy transition for years and is already the federal state with the most electricity from renewable energies.

. . . and wind power into a secure (energy) future(Bild: Richard Neubauer)

Energy transition in Lower Austria: with solar power . . .(Bild: Wolfgang Spitzbart)

Water, wind and sun 
"Lower Austria is Austria's green electricity locomotive!" Hydro, wind and solar power are the pillars on which Lower Austria's energy future rests, says Pernkopf: "This is how we protect the environment and the climate. And become independent of energy imports from other countries." Countries that rely on nuclear power despite Chernobyl.