Ministry comments on Loviisa assessment

18 October 2007

The Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry has released its comments on Fortum Power's environmental impact assessment (EIA) program, submitted in advance of the actual EIA for a new nuclear reactor at the Loviisa site. The ministry took 16 weeks to evaluate the program, and comments from other parties were accepted for 12 weeks including from Sweden, Norway, Germany and Estonia. Some 62 comments were received. The conclusions reached by ministry officials were that the main environmental impact from a new nuclear plant would be effects on seawater used for cooling. After that would come impacts from improvements to electricity transmission lines and traffic at the site. Fortum were told by the ministry to include in their full EIA a review of currently available nuclear power plant designs; an outline of the cost of the project; an analysis in terms of climate change and particularly the effect of changes in sea level; and the impact of the nuclear fuel cycle in general and Forum's ability to influence this. The company will now prepare its full EIA for submission to the ministry, which will be subject to a further round of public comment. The ministry said it expected the development of the EIA to take until the summer of 2008.

Further information

Fortum

Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry: Statement on Loviisa 3 EIA program

WNA's Nuclear Power in Finland information paper

WNN: Finland mulls over new nuclear sites
WNN: Fortum launches Loviisa 3 EIA process

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