5 Dec (NucNet): The Finnish Parliament today approved plans by Fennovoima Oyj to build the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear plant at Pyhäjoki, with Fennovoima saying commercial operation is scheduled in 10 years.
Parliament voted 115 to 74 in favour of Fennovoima’s supplement to a 2010 decision-in-principle for construction of the plant, which will be based on Russia’s AES-2006 Generation III+ pressurised water reactor design.
The approval carries the condition that at least 60 percent of the shares in the project must be under Finnish ownership.
Fennovoima submitted a request to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy in March 2014 to re-examine the government’s original decision-in-principle of May 2010 for construction of the station.
The 2010 decision approved construction, but since then a subsidiary of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom acquired shares in the project and the proposed reactor type was changed to the 1,200-megawatt AES-2006. This reactor type was not among the options examined in the original application.
The government requires Fennovoima to submit a construction licence application by the end of June 2015. The plant design work and construction licence application are being prepared together with plant supplier Rusatom Overseas, Fennovoima said.
Fennovoima said work started at Pyhäjoki, on the Finland’s west coast, in mid-September with the construction of a new access road. From 2015 to 2017 extensive infrastructure work will include excavation and earthworks, as well as the construction of auxiliary buildings. The first concrete is scheduled for 2018.
Rusatom Overseas is in final negotiations with main suppliers and contracts are due to be signed by the end of the current year. Next-phase negotiations will begin in early 2015.
Finland’s biggest electricity company, Fortum, said this week it is ready to make a significant investment in the Hanhikivi project. The deal, which is conditional on the restructuring of Fortum’s ownership of Russian power company TGC-1, would increase domestic ownership in the planned facility to over 60 percent.
