Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), which operates the Olkiluoto power plant in Eurajoki in Southwest Finland, is now focusing on the start-up of its long-awaited third reactor (OL3), which started up on 21 December. The company has abandoned plans to build a fourth reactor in the area after extensive cost overruns and a delay in the OL3 project, which will be completed in 2009.
Fortum, which is majority-owned by the state, is considering a possible decision to extend the life of its two reactors in Loviisa.
The operating licenses for the Loviisa units will expire in 2027 and 2030. But if Fortum applies for and obtains a further license, reactors completed with Soviet technology in 1978 and 1980 may be operational until the end of the 2040s.
The Ministry of Employment and the Economy on Friday gave a preliminary green light to extend the permits for up to 20 years.
The option was "no significant adverse environmental effects were identified that could not be accepted, prevented or reduced to acceptable levels. The most significant impact of a nuclear power plant in normal operation is the heat load of cooling water in the near-sea area," the ministry said in a statement.
"The environmental impact assessment of the alternatives must also take into account the nationally high energy economic importance of the project," the ministry added.
The final decision may come later this year, pending consideration by the Ministry of the Environment and other authorities.
Record-breaking support for nuclear power
In a survey published by Suomen Energia (ET) a month ago, 50 per cent of respondents said that nuclear power should be expanded in Finland. It was the highest since the start of the annual survey in 1990. It rose from 42 percent in 2020 to just 29 percent a decade ago following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
"The support figures show that Finland’s climate-friendly energy policy is widely accepted. We have reduced emissions, and people concerned about the environment are beginning to see that nuclear power is part of the climate solution." CEO of Suomen Energia Jukka Leskelä said in a press release.
However, nuclear power remained less popular than many other forms of energy, including solar power, which 87 percent said should be used more. It was followed by wind power (81 per cent), hydropower (52 per cent) and wood and other biofuels (52 per cent).
In October, IROResearch conducted an ET survey of 1,000 Finnish adults, estimating a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.
The crisis in Ukraine may affect Fennovoima’s project
At the same time, plans to build Finland’s first completely new nuclear power plant on the west coast are in the air. The Fennovoima consortium, to which Fortum belongs, hopes to build the plant on the Hanhikivi Peninsula in Pyhäjoki on a turnkey basis, supplied by the Russian state-owned Rosatom Group. The plant has not been granted a building permit.
It was originally scheduled to start operations in 2020, but last year the company has set a target date of 2029 for commercial operations.
In August, the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (Stuk) said that Fennovoima had not yet submitted all the requested documents for the assessment of its preliminary safety assessment.
"No actual plans have been presented to Stuk for the safety arrangements of the power plant itself and its operating environment," it said in late August and added that there have been "little progress" in project readiness.
Kauppalehti said on Friday that the crisis in Ukraine may further complicate the Fennovoima project. It noted that the plant’s reactor pressure vessel is to be manufactured in eastern Ukraine, 40 to 50 kilometers from the battlefield.
Fighting in the area could make it impossible for Stuk to make the required inspection visits to the factory site. The plant is partly owned by Rosatom, which could be subject to Western sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine.
"There are currently no delays in the manufacture of the pressure vessel due to the crisis in Ukraine," Fennovoima’s Senior Vice President, Communications Sakari Kotola told the newspaper.
Source: The Nordic Page