The Chernobyl plume led to a nuclear-free Austria. Why not elsewhere?

Writing today in Counterpunch, Beyond Nuclear's Linda Pentz Gunter explores how the April 26, 1969 Chernobyl nuclear disaster led to a nuclear-free Austria.  An excerpt:

Nuclear power plants are banned in Austria under the country’s constitution after a 1978 referendum.  (Yes, Virginia, it is actuallyillegal to build nuclear power plants there.)

Nuclear weapons are also banned.  So is the storage of nuclear waste.

Transportation through Austria of civil or military nuclear materials or waste has been outlawed.  Any attempt to revive nuclear power in that country cannot happen without a national referendum.

Austria has taken strong action against the proposed new Hinkley C reactor in England by filing a legal challenge at the European court of justice against EU-granted state subsidies which would be lavished on the $35 billion boondoggle by the British government.

Austria’s chancellor, Werner Faymann, spoke out against nuclear energy during the COP21 climate talks in Paris last December.  Nuclear energy is not included in the climate agreements made there.

Austria’s Director for Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament, Alexander Kmentt, is leading the call for global nuclear weapons abolition at the United Nations.

Not content simply with a nuclear-free Austria, the Vienna-basedCities For A Nuclear Free Europe is demanding “an immediate Europe-wide moratorium on nuclear power plant construction (including plants that are already under construction).”

Read the full article.