Nuclear Power in Finland - New Reactor Construction

New Reactor Construction

A cabinet decision in 2002 to allow the construction of a fifth nuclear reactor was accepted in parliament. The Green League, which was principally opposed to the expansion of nuclear power and which held the position of the Minister of Environment, left the coalition government on 31 May 2002 in protest of the cabinet's decision, narrowing the majority of the coalition in the parliament. Economic, energy security and environmental grounds were given as reasons to build the fifth reactor. While hydroelectricity is curtailed in dry years (range 9,455–14,865 GW·h 1990–2006), nuclear energy supplies near-constant amounts of energy, and studies showed that nuclear energy was the cheapest option for Finland. The vote was seen as very significant for nuclear energy policy in that it was the first decision to build a new nuclear power plant in Western Europe for more than a decade. Areva and Siemens are building the new reactor at the Olkiluoto plant.

Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) ordered the 1600 MW nuclear reactor from French Areva and German Siemens in 2003 with the fixed price of €3 billion and scheduled hand over time in the year 2009. The construction of this plant is now substantially behind schedule and over cost; Areva now expects a result of negative €2.3 billion ($3.2 billion) once the reactor is completed. In June 2010 the major newspaper Helsingin Sanomat in Finland wrote that Olkiluoto 3 start up will store place in the beginning of 2013 and will take several months.

According to World Nuclear Association 2008: ”Experience has shown that each year of additional delay in the construction of a nuclear power plants adds another estimated $1 billion to the cost”.

Siemens sold its 34% share of the shared company Areva NP to Areva in January 2009 for €2.1 billion. The European Union started the cartel examination of nuclear cooperation of Areva and Siemens in June 2010. Areva NP was previously named Framatome.