Hanhikivi Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant proposed for construction on the Finnish Hanhikivi peninsula, in the municipality of Pyhäjoki. It is to house one Russian-designed VVER-1200pressurised water reactor, with a capacity of 1200 MW. It was estimated that the reactor would supply 10% of Finland's energy demand by 2024. The reactor contractor Rosatom announced in December 2018, that the plant will be operational by 2028 at the earliest, and building would not begin before 2021.
Description
Hanhikivi 1
On 21 April 2010, the Government of Finland decided to grant a permit to Fennovoima for construction of a nuclear reactor. The decision was approved by the Parliament on 1 July 2010. The chosen plant model is Rosatom's pressurized water reactorAES-2006 which is the latest evolution of VVER plant designs. The other bidders for the project were Areva and Toshiba. Fennovoima began direct negotiations with Rosatom in April 2013. On 21 December 2013, Fennovoima and Rosatom Overseas, a subsidiary of Rosatom, signed a plant supply contract. The plant should be commissioned by 2024. On 28 July 2016, Rosatom signed a contract with Alstom Power Systems for the design and supply of turbine generator equipment package as well as advisory services for installation and commissioning works. The turbine generator equipment will be based on Alstom's Arabelle technology. On 8 June 2017, Fennovoima announced that the plant's main automation would be supplied by Rolls Royce and Schneider Electric. Rolls Royce is also the supplier of automation modernization for Loviisa nuclear power plant. However, Rolls Royce withdrew from the Hanhikivi project in the autumn of 2018. In October 2019, Framatome and Siemens were chosen as the automation suppliers. On 28 February 2014, Voimaosakeyhtiö SF made the final decision to participate in Fennovoima's nuclear power plant construction. The final investment decision would be made in 2014. The ownership was assured in August 2015. The plant was estimated to cost "less than €50/MWh, including all production costs, depreciation, finance costs and waste management". As of October 2017, some of the debt financing was still under negotiation. On 21 December 2018, Fennovoima announced that it had received a new schedule to receive the construction license and start construction of the plant in 2021. The commercial operation should start in 2028.
Political impact
As the power plant will generate 10% of Finland's electricity demand and Rosatom owns 34% of the plant, this means Rosatom will supply 3% of Finland's electricity production according to Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, professor of Russian energy politics at University of Helsinki. He argued that Russia could use the reactor to for instance manipulate Nordic power prices, or use it as leverage in political disputes as Russia already uses its gas supply in disputes with neighbouring countries such as Ukraine. According to researcher Martin Kragh at Uppsala University in Sweden, Russia has already applied pressure to keep the project going by leveraging Fortum's investments in Russia. In 2018, Fortum expanded its interests in Russia by acquiring Uniper.
