Fortum to change schedule for new reactor

Outokumpu links new investment to approval of more nuclear power

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Energy utility Fortum is willing to slightly postpone the construction of a new nuclear reactor that it hopes to build in Loviisa. In a statement issued on Monday, Fortum told the Ministry of Employment and the Economy that it is ready to schedule its project in such a way that the reactor, its third in Loviisa, would begin operations in 2022 - 2023.
      In the application that it has submitted to the government, the company proposed taking the reactor into use in 2020.
     
The statement is seen as a concession in the present situation in which two other applicants, Fennovoima and Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), are also applying for nuclear licences. Both have 2020 as the target year.
      Director Sasu Valkamo of Fortum says that the company wants to bring a new initiative into the discussion, and is agreeable to staggering the different projects. Fortum hopes that this concession will persuade decision-makers to grant licences to all three applicants.
     
The newly proposed schedule would suit Fortum, because the operating licences of its two old Loviisa reactors do not expire until 2027 and 2030. A new large reactor would replace both old ones. If the new one is completed in 2023, it would give a few extra years to prepare for the closure of the two older ones.
      Of the applicants, Fennovoima is the most eager to start construction immediately, because the companies behind it do not have any nuclear facilities in operation.
      One factor boosting Fortum’s willingness to compromise is that it owns a quarter of TVO, which means that if TVO gets a licence, it will be involved in the project.
     
Steel manufacturer Outokumpu said on Monday that it would re-evaluate its plans for the expansion of production of ferrochrome in Tornio.
      The company is considering doubling its output capacity to 530,000 tonnes. A decision is to be made by the end of June.
      In June, the stainless steel manufacturer said that it would double its ferrochrome output with a project costing EUR 420 million by the beginning of 2011. The investment would bring about 100 new jobs to the Tornio ferrochrome plant and the Kemi mine. The project was later postponed because of the financial crisis.
     
Outokumpu CEO Juha Rantanen now says that the project depends to a great extent on how the price and availability of electricity develops in Finland. This is why Outokumpu is heavily involved in the Fennovoima nuclear project.
      Outokumpu’s Tornio plant consumes about three per cent of all of Finland’s energy.
      The government and Parliament are to decide on nuclear licences this spring. “The decision in question will be taken into consideration as a factor affecting investment in ferrochrome”, Outokumpu announced.
     
The expansion would make Outokumpu self-sufficient with respect to chrome. The ferrochrome smelter gets its ore from the company’s own mine in Kemi. The smelter is located adjacent to an integrated steel mill, allowing the ferrochrome to be moved into the steel smelter in molten form.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finance Ministry: Granting nuclear licence to Fortum would give company excessively powerful position (26.3.2010)
  Poll: Support for new nuclear reactor declines (23.3.2010)
  Outokumpu giving up copper - hopes to become world leader in stainless steel (1.9.2004)

Links:
  Fortum
  Outokumpu press release March 29, 2010: Outokumpu to re-evaluate ferrochrome production expansion

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