23 Jan (NucNet): The project to build the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear plant in Finland is on schedule with a supplier of the instrumentation and control (I&C) systems to be chosen this year and commercial operation scheduled for 2024, Fennovoima’s public affairs manager Hanna Vanhatalo told NucNet in an email.
Ms Vanhatalo said project owner Fennovoima is focusing on delivering technical plant documentation to the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (Stuk).
Fennovoima submitted the construction licence application in 2015 and is supplementing the application with detailed documentation.
“Our goal is to get the construction licence in 2018,” Ms Vanhatalo said.
She said the plant supplier, Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has “strengthened its organisation” in order to keep up with the schedule.
Rosatom has made internal arrangements to put more people working on the project, for example through expert support, Ms Vanhatalo said.
Hanhikivi-1 will be a 1,200-MW VVER pressurised water reactor of the Russian AES-2006 type.
The Hanhikivi site, south of the town of Oulu in northern Finland, is big enough for a second reactor, although Fennovoima has not made any decision on whether there will be another unit.
