On the historic 5 November 1978, the Austrian Federal Minister of the Interior, Erwin Lanc, read out the surprising result at 7:30 pm: “1,576,839 votes or 49.53 percent in favour and 1,606,308 or 50.47 percent against putting the power plant into operation. Therefore, the statute submitted in parliament for national referendum is dropped.”

This small difference of less than 30,000 votes did not only decide the fate of the power plant along the Danube but also had a lasting effect on the next decades of Austria’s energy policies.