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Chooses Russian giga-reactor for Pyhäjoki NPP

Fennovoima signs agreement with Rosatom aiming at a nuclear power plant supply contract for Finland’s new nuclear power plant to be built south of Oulu. Will be the second nuclear power plant in the Barents Region.

Location

The Russian designed 1,200 MW reactors, named AES-2006, will be one of the largest in the world. There are no such reactors in operation today, but a number of them are proposed to be built at nuclear power plants in Russia, including the Leningrad and Novovoronezh NPPs.

The contract for supplying Fennovoima’s Hanhikivi 1 nuclear power plant in Pyhäjoki south of Oulu in northern Finland is to be signed by the end of 2013. In addition, negotiations on Rusatom Overseas acquiring 34 percent share in the capital of Fennovoima are being carried out, the company says in a press-release. Rusatom Overseas is a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation.

Hanhikivi NPP in Pyhäjoki will be Finland’s fourth nuclear power plant and the second in the Barents Region. The currently only in the Barents Region is Kola NPP outside the town of Polyarny Zori. The first reactor at Kola NPP, a VVER-440/230 model, celebrated its 40-years anniversary last Friday. The reactor was the first Soviet designed civilian press-water reactor, while the VVER-1200 that Fennovoima now chooses is the fourth generation of pressure water reactor made by Russian engineers.

In terms of output, the new reactor to be built in northern Finland produces nearly three times as much electricity as the first Kola NPP reactor.

Click here for a illustration showing the design of the reactor.

Direct negotiations with Rusatom Overseas begun in April 2013, the Fennovoima press-release reads. Since February 2013, negotiations have been ongoing with Toshiba as well but from now on Fennovoima concentrates on negotiating only with Rusatom Overseas.

The plan is to start construction of the nuclear power plant after 2020.