As the only country in the world, Austria has built a nuclear power plant without ever putting it in operation. Nowadays, this gives the opportunity to go inside an actual reactor (as part of a twice-weekly public tour). That is exactly what I did today with a group of friends.

The nuclear power plan Zwentendorf was build in the 1970s, but never went in operation after a referendum against it in November 1978. It was in maintainence mode for seven more years, before the costs were finally too high to keep it going. Since 2010, it can be visited on a free twice-weekly tour (in German).

The tour consists of a short video about the construction, and some introductory information about the history of the power plant. The main part of the tour, however, is a visit of the nuclear power plant itself. As it was never in operation, there is no risk of radiation. So, we could not only visit the reactor room, but also the machine room for the control rods directly underneath the reactor, and even the wet well (into which a hole was cut in 2005, as it was quite clear by then that the reactor would never be in operation). The final stop of our tour was the control room, where (almost) everything is still in its original condition – a surreal feeling indeed!