The support to construction of Russian-Finnish NPP Hanhikivi-1 in Finland remains to be strong

«The support was always stably strong. In this context nothing changed when Rosatom joined the project. She emphasized very favorable public relation to the Russian partner. In her words currently 70 % of public in Puhajoki, the town where the NPP is to be constructed, support the project. “It is a difficult task to achieve better indicators” – she added.

Both Finnish and Russian companies informed the public in Puhajoki that the future NPP is practically safe for local environment. «The biggest effect will be from the warm water. We will take the water from the sea for cooling purposes and then it will come back to the sea. This is, in fact, the only impact of the NPP to the environment. And light noise. All corresponding calculations are contained in our NPP Environmental Impact Assessment Report. What is the scope of the impacts? This depends on the values for comparison. I would say that Hanhikivi-1 is rather safe as compared to the plants operating on the fossil fuel», - clarified Mrs. Forsstrem.

In the end of March Rosatom became the owner of 34 % shares in Fennovoima. The share of the Finnish company fall below 50 % after Kesko, a daughter company of Kestra, left the project. A small number of shares belong to the Swedish party. In April the share-holders of Fennovoima made a final decision to support the NPP construction.

Rusatom Overseas (a daughter company of Rosatom) and Finnish Fennovoima signed a contract for construction of Hanhikivi-1 NPP in the end of December 2013. The construction license was received by Fennovoima in summer 2010. When the license was granted the Russian party was not mentioned as the reactor supplier and the Finnish party deemed reasonable to arrange a new hearing in the Parliament to have a new approval of the construction, the government is supposed to submit the project for Parliamentary review in the beginning of the summer.

The Fennovoima expects that the Finnish authorities after review of new project elements will confirm again that “it meets the interest of society to the full extent”. It is suggested that Rusatom Overseas will supply for the plant a reactor of 1200 MW capacity. The construction itself will be started not earlier 2015. According to the Finnish mass-media the estimated costs of the plant construction will make 6,5 bln. euro, 1,6 bln. euro of this amount will be paid by Fennovoima, the remaining amount - by Rosatom.