Country Finland Status Proposed Owner(s) Fennovoima Start date January 2009 Make and model OKB Gidropress | Location Pyhäjoki Commission date 2024 (expected) Reactor type PWR Planned completion date 2024 | |
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Hanhikivi Nuclear Power Plant (Finnish: Hanhikiven ydinvoimalaitos, Swedish: Hanhikivi kärnkraftverk) is a nuclear power plant proposed for construction on the Finnish Hanhikivi peninsula, in the municipality of Pyhäjoki. It is to house one Russian-designed VVER-1200 PWR reactor, with a capacity of 1200 MW. It was estimated that the reactor will supply 10% of Finland's energy demand by 2024.
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Government approval
On 21 April 2010, the Government of Finland decided to grant a permit (Decision-in-Principle) to Fennovoima for construction of a nuclear reactor. The decision was approved by the Parliament on 1 July 2010.
Plant supplier
The chosen plant model is Rosatom's pressurized water reactor AES-2006 which is the latest evolution of VVER plant designs. The other bidders for the project were Areva and Toshiba.
Fennovoima began direct negotiations with Rosatom in April 2013. On 21 December 2013, Fennovoima and Rosatom Overseas, a subsidiary of Rosatom, signed a plant supply contract. The plant should be commissioned by 2024.
On 28 July 2016, Rosatom signed a contract with Alstom Power Systems (part of General Electric) for the design and supply of turbine generator equipment package ("conventional island") as well as advisory services for installation and commissioning works. The turbine generator equipment will be based on Alstom's Arabelle technology.
Investment decision
On 28 February 2014 Voimaosakeyhtiö SF made the final decision to participate in Fennovoima's nuclear power plant construction. The final investment decision would be made in 2014. The ownership was assured in August 2015. The plant was estimated to cost "less than €50/MWh (5 cents/kWh), including all production costs, depreciation, finance costs and waste management".
Political impact
As the power plant will generate 10% of Finland's electricity demand and Rosatom owns 34%, this means Rosatom will supply 3% of Finland's electricity production according to Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, professor of Russian energy politics at University of Helsinki. He argued that Russia could use the reactor to for instance manipulate Nordic power prices, or use it as leverage in political disputes as Russia already uses its gas supply in disputes with neighbouring countries such as Ukraine. According to researcher Martin Kragh at Uppsala University in Sweden, Russia has already applied pressure to keep the project going by leveraging Fortum's investments in Russia.