Technology News - December 1, 2004

Finland adds another nuclear reactor, this time to cut greenhouse gases

Construction of the world’s largest nuclear reactor got under way in Finland in November. The move is in stark contrast to the energy policies in other European countries: Officials in Germany and Sweden, for example, have opted to phase out their existing nuclear power stations.

Finland already operates four nuclear reactors. However, government officials have said that without additional nuclear power, greenhouse gas emissions from electricity, produced mostly from fossil fuels, could increase by more than 10 million tonnes per year. Electricity production already accounts for 20–30% of greenhouse gas emissions in Finland. The government also wants to reduce its dependency on imports of coal, crude oil, and natural gas; Finland imports nearly two-thirds of its energy.

The Finnish government approved the 1600-megawatt, €3 billion reactor in 2002. Although the construction license hadn’t been granted at press time, this is seen as a formality. Officials with the Finnish power group TVO, the reactor’s operator, expect it to come on-line in 2009. It’s being built in Olkiluoto, western Finland, by the French–German company Framatome ANP, which is a subsidiary of the French state-controlled nuclear energy group Areva, and Siemens of Germany.

Antinuclear activists staged protests near the plant site in November, and opposition is running high. Lauri Myllyvirta of the nongovernmental organization Friends of the Earth complains that the public is not being informed. “The Finnish Radiation Security Agency (Säteilyturvakeskus, STUK) has not approved the plans, yet construction work for the reactor is under way,” he says. “What is most worrying, however, is that corrections requested by STUK to address any failures of the design have not been published.”
Myllyvirta says his group is very concerned at the speed of the construction process. He claims it should take 10 years to build this kind of reactor, a European Pressurized Reactor, and 3 years of operation to prove it is a viable technology. Yet the plan is for the Finnish model to be running in five years.

Anneli Nikula of TVO says that STUK is no longer asking for large design modifications. The plant technology is nothing new, she adds: “It’s a combination of two reactor types, and both have been operating for many years. It is not a demonstration plant.” —MARIA BURKE