Rüthi nuclear power plant

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Rüthi nuclear power plant
Photo montage of the planned Rüthi nuclear power plant, seen from Vorarlberg
Photo montage of the planned Rüthi nuclear power plant, seen from Vorarlberg
location
Rüthi nuclear power plant (Switzerland)
Rüthi nuclear power plant
Coordinates 760 289  /  241337 coordinates: 47 ° 18 '12 "  N , 9 ° 33' 30"  O ; CH1903:  seven hundred and sixty thousand two hundred eighty-nine  /  241337
Country: SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Data
Owner: Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerke AG
Project start: 1972
Commercial operation: no
Shutdown: 1980
Planning finished: 1980
The data source of the respective entries can be found in the documentation .
f1

The unrealized Rüthi nuclear power plant was a planned Swiss nuclear power plant of Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerke AG in Rüthi in the canton of St. Gallen in the immediate vicinity of the border between Austria and Switzerland . In 1980, the plans to build the nuclear power plant were dropped because of strong resistance in the canton of St. Gallen, but especially in the neighboring Austrian state of Vorarlberg .

The protests against the initially planned oil and later nuclear power plant at the Rüthi site were particularly important for the emergence of the environmental protection and anti-nuclear power movement in St. Gallen and Vorarlberg.

history

Initially, the St. Gallen cantonal government and the Northeast Swiss Power Plants (NOK) planned to build a thermal power plant at the Rüthi site. This was to be built at the Rüthi location, as it offered several advantages: On the one hand, two high-voltage lines crossed each other in Rüthi , which would have enabled the electrical energy to be transported throughout Eastern Switzerland. On the other hand, the construction of an oil pipeline through the Swiss Rhine Valley (the Central European Line ) was realized at the beginning of the 1960s , which would have guaranteed the power plant to be supplied with crude oil through existing procurement rights in Switzerland. The cantonal government and the power plant operator NOK then developed plans to build a thermal oil power plant, which should cover the increasing electricity demand in eastern Switzerland in the future. For this purpose, the construction of generator groups was planned, each of which would have burned around 35 tons of oil an hour. The entire power plant would have emitted around 33 tons of sulfur dioxide per day without flue gas scrubbing and without desulfurization .

Protests against these plans were soon raised on both sides of the border. Particularly in Vorarlberg near the border - the planned location in Rüthi was only a few hundred meters from the state border in the Alpine Rhine and thus from the Vorarlberg neighboring municipality of Meiningen - under the leadership of the high-circulation daily Vorarlberger Nachrichten with its editor-in-chief Franz Ortner there was lively popular resistance. To a large demonstration on September 11, 1965 in Feldkirch against the thermal power plant under the title "Rüthi nie!" appeared only one year after the Fußach affair again between 10,000 and 25,000 participants. The then Vorarlberg governor Herbert Keßler was able to get the St. Gallen cantonal government to promise to wait for an international appraisal until construction of the power plant could begin. From 1966 at the latest, however, the plans were no longer pursued because of the unexpectedly strong resistance.

Instead, the project to build a nuclear power plant at the same location came up for discussion at the end of the 1960s. In 1972, the operating company NOK presented its plans for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Rüthi to the public for the first time. The now planned power plant should have a capacity of 800 to 900 MW and a 150 meter high cooling tower. The plan was to receive a location and operating permit from the federal government in the same year and to be able to put the power plant into operation in 1978. Although the then Federal President Roger Bonvin supported the project, fierce opposition soon arose. For example, in 1975 the “Atomkraftwerk Rüthi No” association with 500 members was launched in Altstätten . The two well-known members of the National Council, Hans Schmid and Franz Jaeger, were also represented on its board of directors . In Vorarlberg, too, violent protests against the planned nuclear power plant were voiced. For example, the Vorarlberg state government declared in 1973 that “in view of the chosen location of the power plant and given the climatic and topographical conditions, Vorarlberg would have to bear the majority of the negative effects and dangers”.

Because of this again very strong resistance on both sides of the national border, the NOK finally stopped the preparatory work for the Rüthi nuclear power plant on February 20, 1980. A location and operating license from the federal government had not been issued by this time. The “Atomkraftwerk Rüthi No” association existed until 1993 and also attracted attention when it was feared that Rüthi could possibly become an alternative location for the failed Kaiseraugst nuclear power plant .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Christine Stoy and Patric Schnitzer, St.Gallen State Archives: Rüthi nuclear power plant, 1970s. In: "Noticed in the State Archives" of the State Archives St. Gallen. 2011, accessed February 6, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Volaucnik: Rüthi never! Large demonstration 40 years ago . 2005, p. 46
  3. ↑ Volaucnik: Rüthi never! Large demonstration 40 years ago . 2005, p. 49
  4. ↑ Breiner: Atomic resistance story (s) . 2009, p. 275
  5. ^ Minutes of the 8th meeting of the XXI. Vorarlberg Landtag in 1973
  6. ↑ Andreas Kneubühler: Bugger Rüthi. In: St. Galler Tagblatt . March 7, 2007, archived from the original on February 7, 2018 ; accessed on February 6, 2018 .