Finland's parliament voted approval Friday of a go-ahead for an AES-2006 nuclear power plant to be built by Rusatom Overseas, a subsidiary of Rosatom, for Finnish power company Fennovoima for an operations start in 2024.
The 117-74 vote to approve the deal was tied to support announced on 2 December that state-controlled Fortum, the country's largest utility company, had agreed to purchase 15 percent of the project, which pushed Finnish ownership above the 60 percent threshold stipulated by the government and added credibility to the project, given Fortum's track record in the nuclear power industry.
Fortum has operated the Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant since 1977, which helped parliament overcome its concern that Fennovoima did not have enough skills and experience in the industry. Fennovoima is a company formed by a variety of concerns for the purpose of building a pressurized water nuclear power plant at Hanhikivi on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia, which separates Finland from Sweden.
The measure approved by parliament gives Fennovoima until June 30 to apply for a construction license. Negotiations with suppliers and contractors and preliminary work on an access road to the construction site has already begun.
Concrete work is expected to begin in 2018. That will be preceded by excavation work and construction of on-site auxiliary buildings.
The price of Hanhikivi 1 is currently $8.7 billion. While economic and political pressures have been building since the project was given preliminary approval in 2010, Fennovoima said that at less than $61.35 per megawatt-hour, the project would prove to be a sound investment.