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Country profile: Finland

Summary figures for 2011

The following information is from the NEA publication Nuclear Energy Data, the annual compilation of official statistics and country reports on nuclear energy in OECD member countries.

Country
Number of nuclear power plants connected to the grid
Nuclear electricity generation
(net TWh) 2011
Nuclear percentage of total electricity supply
Finland
4
22.3
31.6
  
OECD Europe
135
858.4
24.7
  
Total
329
2049.5
20.7
  

Country report

The Finnish public limited company Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) was granted a construction licence for Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) pressurised water reactor (type EPR, European pressurised water reactor) in February 2005. The reactor's thermal output will be 4 300 MWe and electric output about 1 600 MWe.

Construction of the plant started in the summer of 2005 and at the end of 2011 the civil construction works were completed to a large extent. The major components of the reactor, such as the pressure vessel, pressuriser and four steam generators, had been installed, along with welding works on the primary coolant circuit pipeline. Installation of the other components and pipeline welding as well as pressure tests at the reactor continued and commissioning tests of the automation cabinets at the turbine plant are ongoing. Planning of the plant's automation is also ongoing.

The AREVA-Siemens consortium constructing the OL3 plant on a fixed-price turnkey delivery contract informed TVO in December 2011 that it is scheduled to be ready for regular electricity production in August 2014. The original schedule had commercial electricity production starting in 2009.

Fortum Power and Heat Oy (Fortum) was granted in July 2007 new 20-year operating licences for its Loviisa 1 and 2 PWR units. Fortum is planning that both units will have at least a 50-year lifetime and the end of their operation would be around 2030.

In June 2007, a new company Fennovoima Oy initiated a nuclear new build project. This new power company was created by a consortium of industrial and energy companies (with the German company E.ON holding a 34% share) with the aim of constructing a new NPP in Finland that could be operational by 2020. According to the climate and energy strategy adopted by Finland, nuclear power is an option, but the initiatives must come from industry. As stipulated in the Nuclear Energy Act, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) process must be completed before an application for a decision-in-principle (DIP) can be submitted to the government. The TVO and Fortum EIA processes were completed in 2008 and the Fennovoima process in 2009. The Ministry of Employment and the Economy (MEE) is the co-ordinating authority for the EIA processes.

TVO filed its DIP application for the construction of Olkiluoto 4 in April 2008 and Fortum for Loviisa 3 in February 2009. Fennovoima filed a DIP application in January 2009. Fennovoima's listed candidate sites, Simo and Pyhäjoki, stated in 2009 as per a request from the MEE that they are willing to host Fennovoima's plant, and the nuclear regulatory authority (STUK - Säteilyturvakeskus) had found both of these greenfield sites suitable for an NPP.

Posiva Oy, the organisation created by TVO and Fortum to manage spent fuel disposal, also filed DIP applications to enlarge the ONKALO final repository to accommodate spent fuel from the proposed new reactors (Olkiluoto 4 and Loviisa 3).

The MEE processed all five DIP applications during 2009-2010 and the government made its decisions in May 2010. All applications fulfilled all safety and environmental requirements. As specified by the Nuclear Energy Law, decisions on all DIPs were based on the projects' overall good for society, projected national energy needs in 2020 and the limit of two new NPPs at this time.

The Olkiluoto 4 and Fennovoima new build projects received positive DIPs as did Posiva for repository enlargement project for Olkiluoto 4 spent fuel. Loviisa 3 was issued a negative DIP, as was Posiva's proposal to further expand ONKALO to accommodate Loviisa 3 spent fuel. The three positive DIPs were ratified in parliament on 1 July 2010.

Positive DIPs were issued to the two utilities (TVO and Fennovoima) that will produce cost price electricity for the needs of Finnish industries that are funding these new build projects. The government also took into account Fortum's stake (about 25%) in TVO when deciding upon the DIPs.

The positive DIPs for TVO's Olkiluoto 4 and for Fennovoima were ratified in parliament on 1 July. Posiva also received a ratified DIP for its application for the Olkiluoto 4 spent fuel handling at that date. In October 2011, Fennovoima chose the municipality of Pyhäjoki as the preferred site, announcing that the unit will be named Hanhikivi 1, referring to the name of the peninsula where the unit is to be sited. In July 2011, Fennovoima invited bids for the power plant from AREVA and Toshiba and received bids in January 2012. The main contracts are expected to be finalised later (so the units are not "firmly committed" yet according to the OECD/NEA criteria).

In 2004, Posiva Oy started construction of the underground laboratory (rock characterisation facility) named ONKALO for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel generated by the owners (TVO and Fortum) of the Olkiluoto and Loviisa plants. ONKALO is intended to be a part of the final repository. By the end of 2011, ONKALO excavations had reached the final depth of 420 m with an overall length of more than 4 km. Posiva plans to apply for the construction licence before the end of 2012. The construction of the final disposal facility is expected to commence in 2014 and disposal operations are planned to start in 2020.

Source: Nuclear Energy Data 2012

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Last reviewed: 7 October 2012