Rosatom subsidiary will proceed with Finnish nuclear project (updated)
11/04/2022 12:00
(Adds detail, comments, background)
By Anne Kauranen
HELSINKI, April 11 (Reuters) - Russia's state-owned nuclear
power supplier Rosatom and its Finnish unit RAOS Project will
proceed with a planned nuclear plant in Finland, RAOS said on
Monday, despite uncertainty over government permits since
Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Rosatom and RAOS Project continue fulfilling their
obligations under signed agreements and contracts relating to
the Hanhikivi 1 project," RAOS Project told Reuters in an email.
Since Russia began what it calls a "special operation" in
Ukraine, Finland's minister of economic affairs Mika Lintila has
repeatedly said it would be "absolutely impossible" for the
government to grant a construction permit for the Hanhikivi
plant. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2UZ8W9
The plant was commissioned by a Finnish-Russian consortium
dubbed Fennovoima, in which Finnish stakeholders such as
Outokumpu OUT1V.HE , Fortum FORTUM.HE and SSAB SSABa.ST own
two thirds and Rosatom's subsidiary RAOS Voima holds the rest.
Many of the Finnish stakeholders have publicly expressed
their will to pull out and write down the project, but are
unwilling to pay RAOS Project for breach of existing contracts
and possible indemnities.
Meanwhile, RAOS Project has continued preparatory
construction work, such as cabling and excavation in the planned
plant's site on the northwest coast of Finland, but cannot
embark on building the facility without a government licence.
"RAOS Project Ltd as the ... supplier is acting based on and
in accordance with the engineering, procurement and construction
contract signed in December 2013 with Fennovoima," it wrote.
Fennovoima had expected to obtain a construction licence
from the government by summer 2022 to build the 1.2 gigawatt
(GW) reactor, while construction was expected to begin in 2023.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2ML562
Finland's government was not immediately available for
comment.
(Reporting by Anne Kauranen; Editing by David Goodman and David
Holmes)
((anne.kauranen@thomsonreuters.com; +358401895560;))