Fennovoima narrows search for plant site
28 August 2007
Fennovoima, the recently-formed joint venture company to construct a new nuclear power plant in Finland, announced on 27 August that it had narrowed its site selection down to five municipalities from an initial group of 30. Fennovoima will continue discussions with the northern towns of Kemijarvi and Vaala, as well as the western coast towns of Pyhajoki, Simo and Kristiinankaupunki. Tapio Saarenpaa, Fennovoima's CEO, said that the company has not ruled out the possibility that there may still be suitable sites in other municipalities. Fennovoima plans to select between two and four potential sites by this autumn in order to start environmental impact assessments (EIAs). When these are completed, the company will submit an application to parliament for the Decision-in-Principle for constructing a new nuclear power plant. Only when the Decision-in-Principle has been approved will Fennovoima select the site. Fennovoima was formed earlier this year by stainless steel producer Outokumpu, mining and smelting company Boliden, energy utilities Rauman Energia and Katterno Group, and electricity supplier EOn Suomi (the Finnish subsidiary of Germany-based EOn). The joint venture aims to construct a new 1000-1800 MWe nuclear power plant, to start operating between 2016 and 2018.
Further information
Fennovoima
WNA's Nuclear Energy in Finland information paper
WNN: Finland mulls over new nuclear sites
WNN: Finnish companies unite to build nuclear plant