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Citizen movement START ZWENTENDORF plans Austrian-Czech border blockades in cooperation with its partnership organization STOP TEMELIN, until the nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf is brought on-line.

First blockade will happen in late June 2007

The first blockade will happen in late June 2007. Exact time, date and location will be announced later.

Participants should wear yellow dresses and posters, similar to previous demonstrations, just the STOP TEMELIN slogan replaced by the START ZWENTENDORF one. Then our demonstrations will look exactly like earlier demonstrations of our partnership movement, only with that little variation.


The demonstration will culminate with a hunger/gorging strike, while the hunger strike is recommended to thin people and the gorging strike to fat guys. Or the other way round. Gorging strike may be more pleasant, however the hunger strike is for free. Please note that our blockade will be symbolic, we do not want to restrict anyone from anything.

June 27, 2007 - Start Zwentendorf blasts media and blogosphere

The Prague post published an article about our movement, stirring an interest which propagated through the blogopshere like a tsunami.

June 20, 2007 - Austrian politics of radioactive denial

Our representatives visited the Austrian Embassy in Prague today. Their response was closed doors, silence and denial. Is the Austrian approach to radioactive fallout inspired by Soviet handling of the Chernobyl accident? Are we facing radioactive denials again?

See a photo report in a gallery in the Czech wiki. The report depicts our representatives arriving to the Embassy, handing in the note, waiting for the Embassy response, the doors were closed, the doors remained closed and none came.

June 19, 2007 - Response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic arrived

Today we received a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in reply to our sharp diplomatic note. The letter says:

Dear ladies, dear gentlemen,
on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel Schwarzenberg I thank you for the information you sent and for the list of signatories of your initiative „Stop Radioactive Fallout – Start Zwentendorf“. Starting of the nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf and initiation of build up of other nuclear plants is entirely a domestic issue of the Republic of Austria. Your initiative is however considered by us as a galvanization of the discourse concerning peaceful applications of nuclear power in energy production. We will be please to point your initiate out during the next Czech-Austrian talks on this topic. Hereby I consider the contribution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic to your case done.
With friendly greetings,
Tomáš Kafka
Head of the Departement of Central Europe, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic

We replied by a following email:

Thank you for the reply. We hope, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, that our initiative helps not only to lighten your talks with Austrian government, but also to dull the edges of Czech-Austrian relationships.

Our movement is founded on joking attitude and we try to approach the issues with humor, the bare facts however are not that funny. Our claim that the Austrian decision to abandon its nuclear program at the same time have decided about emissions of 2400 tons of radioactive substances, 540 km cubed of CO2 and many others, is substantiated by facts and corresponds to reality. With all due respect, if only for this reason we cannot agree with your opinion that the issue of nuclear energetics is purely a domestic matter of the Republic of Austria.

Similarly as a catastrophic incident in the nuclear power plant in Temelin would have a negative consequence for both the Czech Republic and the Republic of Austria, there is no doubt that restricting of nuclear power development has negative consequences for both the countries. Actually in both the cases the impact would be, or is respectively, much worse on the Czech Republic. Therefore it is our opinion that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not only entitled but also obligated to stress these facts loudly, at the very least. Discussion from an unbalanced ideological positions is not good for anyone, neither for the Czech Republic nor for Austria. Discussion from "Stop Temelin" positions does not make sense without "Start Zwentendorf", or another environmentally, technologically and economically acceptable alternative.

Sincerely yours, presidents of START ZWENTENDORF

June 18, 2007 - Notes seem to have no effect yet

The notes to the Austrian Embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic we sent on Friday do not seem to have a visible effect yet. According to images produced by spy satellites, there is no movement around the Zwentendorf plant indicating any start-up activities. It seems that the Austrian government follows the bad old Soviet strategy when dealing with Chernobyl - to play down and ignore the radioactive fallout. We expect explanations of this inaction and silence when presidents of START ZWENTENDORF visit the Austrian embassy on this Wednesday at 11:50 - 12.00.

June 16, 2006 - START ZWENTENDORF is supported by 100% of public

According to our public survey, full 100% of public supports our movement. The remaining few percent is afraid to openly face us. It is therefore now absolutely certain that we are going to storm the next election. As each our member is also a president, and as it is customary that each president of the victory party has to become a minister, we have to expand the current several hundreds of ministries to at least several thousands. We envisage to turn the abandoned mines into spent nuclear fuel repositories for all the European countries. Part of the spent fuel will be used in our new fast breeder reactors, and a part will be used to include the Czech Republic into the promisingly developing international initiative "Plutonium for Oil".

June 15, 2007 - The notes were delivered

The Notes to the Austrian Embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic were delivered to the representatives.

June 13, 2007 - Sharp notes were drafted

Notes to the Austrian Embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic were drafted in Czech, check the English translation please.

June 11, 2007 - We are getting close to million signatures

The number of signatures under our demands is getting close to one million. Each day there is about 10 new subscriptions, therefore our movement will cross the million line approximately in year 3200.

June 9, 2007 - Article published by iDnes

Jokers plan blockades, demand start-up of the plant writes iDnes [in Czech].

June 3, 2007 - First draft of the English version

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