Nuclear power in Finland
As of 2024, Finland has five operating nuclear reactors in two power plants, all located on the shores of the Baltic Sea.
[1] Located in Loviisa, on the south coast (Gulf of Finland), the plant comprises two VVER-440 pressurized water reactors built by Soviet Atomenergoexport,[3] but fitted with Western instrumentation, containment structures and control systems.
[4] The Olkiluoto plant is owned by Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), and is located in Eurajoki, on the west coast, near Rauma.
[2] FiR 1 was a small research reactor located in Otaniemi, Espoo; a TRIGA Mark II, built for the Helsinki University of Technology in 1962.
[1] The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (Finnish: Säteilyturvakeskus, STUK) is responsible for regulation and inspection.
STUK is under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and is assisted by an Advisory Committee on Nuclear Safety in major matters.
STUK may interrupt the operation of a nuclear power plant if so required in order to ensure safety.
[17] In June 2010, the European Union began an investigation of Areva and Siemens for anti-trust violations in nuclear cooperation.
On 21 April 2010, the Government of Finland decided to grant permits for construction of the sixth and seventh commercial reactors to Teollisuuden Voima and Fennovoima, a joint venture between RAOS Voima Oy, a subsidiary of Rusatom, and SF energy, a consortium of Finnish industrial companies.
In October 2011, Fennovoima announced that it had chosen Pyhäjoki, in northern Finland, as the site for the country's third nuclear power plant.
[23] The project was delayed by several years, and in May 2022, Fennovoima terminated its contract with Rosatom to build the power plant.
For not seeking building permission by June 2015 for the fourth Olkiluoto reactor, TVO's permit granted in 2010 is terminated.
[30] Spent fuel from the Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant was initially shipped to the Soviet Union for reprocessing.
After news of the 1957 Kyshtym disaster at the Mayak nuclear fuel reprocessing plant was made public in 1976, this option was no longer seen as politically acceptable.
It will store the spent fuel from the plants owned by the utilities Fortum and TVO, that is, from the Loviisa and Olkiluoto sites.
The major parliamentary political parties in Finland consider support or opposition to nuclear power as an issue that is left to each individual MP to decide.
In 2020 party platform of the Green League no longer excludes construction of new nuclear power plants.
[37] In 2022, the Green League advocated for a technology-neutral palette of energy sources, and letting the decision on the need for nuclear power to be left to the industrial companies, while the government decides where new stations should be built and by whom.
