In 1993 a five year moratorium was declared on the construction of a research reactor in southern Sydney, Australia following a campaign by a range of environmental, anti-nuclear and local residents' groups. In Bulgaria a large national demonstration in the town of Svishtov halted the government's renewed attempts to construct a second nuclear power station in Belena. Five nuclear units under moratorium in Spain were definitively closed down in 1994 with a total loss on investment of about US$ 5,600 million. A federal referendum in Switzerland (1990) imposed a moratorium on new nuclear installations until the year 2000; Austria's nuclear programme can to a halt in 1978, when plans to begin operations at the country's first nuclear power plant at Zwentendorf were rejected by a national referendum; Italian's rejected the development of nuclear power stations by referendum in 1987.
The decision to phase out nuclear power by the year 2010 was taken in Sweden in 1980 by national referendum, subject to meeting conditions of (a) no detriment to the social welfare programme; (b) employment levels in the heavy power consuming industries to be maintained; (c) no increase in the use of oil or coal; and (d) renewable power sources becoming available on an economical scale.
In Germany, there has been a prolonged dispute between the pro-nuclear Federal administration and the largely anti-nuclear state governments which has produced a deadlock in national energy policy, halting construction of a power plant in Hanau and initiating open round table discussions which aim to reach a consensus about Germany's future energy supply (in 1993 nuclear energy provided the main source of public sector electricity (34%) and 10.3% of overall energy consumption) In a 1994 survey of public opinion, 22% of Germans wanted to see an immediate end to nuclear power but 63% are prepared for current power stations to operate for at least the next 15 years.
In the northwestern corner of Russia lies the little city of Kostroma. Recently, plans were made for the construction of the Kostromskoy Nuclear Power Plant. Thanks to the public efforts and activism of the "In the Name of Life" movement, a local non-governmental organization (NGO), nearby residents learned that their health would be in jeopardy with the implementation of the plant. Achievements of the movement included not only the dissemination of this important information to the public, but a city-wide referendum on the issue. Ultimately, Kostroma residents voted against the construction of the atomic station.