Greens plan to vote against further nuclear reactors

At a press conference held on Wednesday morning, the junior government partners the Greens announced their direct opposition to the National Coalition Party's proposals that all three pending nuclear reactor applications would be granted planning permission.
      There is apparently a fundamental difference of opinion within the government ranks on the need for additional nuclear power in Finland.
      The Greens intend to vote in the government against the granting of a permit to build even one new nuclear reactor.
     
At present three companies have thrown their hat in the ring and are seeking a licence for a new reactor.
      Fortum would like to build its new facility on the island of Hästholmen in Loviisa on Finland’s south coast, which is the location of two of Finland’s existing four commercial reactors.
      Applications for a new Finnish nuke have also been submitted by TVO (which is building Finland’s fifth reactor on the west coast, in Olkiluoto, where the other two existing reactors are located), and by Fennovoima, which is offering three possible locations for a reactor: Simo, Pyhjäjoki, and Ruotsinpyhtää.
      The government can grant from zero to three applications when the matter comes up for a decision in the near future.
     
In the view of the Greens, the building of a new reactor would mean that the additional electrical power generated would go as exports, because electricity consumption is not going to grow as much as would be produced by a new reactor.
      The National Coalition Party leader and Finance Minister
Jyrki Katainen has kept alive the idea of granting a licence to all three applicants.
      According to Katainen such a move would in practice lead to only one additional nuclear reactor, Finland's sixth.
      Writing in the regional daily Savon Sanomat on Sunday, Katainen set out a scenario according to which Fortum would replace its two ageing reactors in Loviisa with one new facility. The Loviisa plants were connected to the grid in 1977 and 1980.
     
In Katainen's opinion, nuclear power should also be harnessed to replace coal as the main source of power station energy.
      "One nuclear reactor would already be needed to replace our current imports of electricity from Russia. I do not quite understand those who oppose the building of a nuclear reactor in Finland but can at the same time approve of the import into the country of energy generated by a nuclear plant close to the country's borders", wrote Katainen.
     
The Greens take the view that the National Coalition Party vision is out of step with the government's climate & energy strategy, since that notes that Finland will not produce nuclear energy for export.
      "If economic growth kicks in next year and electricity consumption heads upwards on the curve anticipated in the climate and energy strategy, consumption by 2020 will remain at or below 90 terawatt hours. In any event, we will be well below the goal set in the programme, of 98 TWh", says MP Oras Tynkkynen, the Greens' climate expert.
     
Tynkkynen says that a new nuclear plant is not required to replace the energy generated through coal-fired plants.
      Oras Tynkkynen observed on Wednesday that the decline in energy consumption now being witnessed is not attributable to the recession and as such it cannot be seen in terms of only a "temporary dip". Consumption fell already before the economic crisis hit, said Tynkkynen.
      During the previous recession of the 1990s, on the other hand, electricity consumption actually grew.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Technology industry wants two more nuclear reactors (24.4.2008)
  Competitors doubt Fennovoima´s ability to finance new nuclear power plant (3.3.2009)
  Fortum enters nuclear energy race (6.2.2009)

See also:
  Finnish Broadcasting Company: More than half of Finns oppose additional nuclear construction (8.5.2008)
  New York Times highlights "cautionary tale" of Olkiluoto nuclear reactor project (29.5.2009)

Links:
  Nuclear power in Finland (Wikipedia - appears to have been vandalised somewhat as of 7.10.2009)
  Fortum
  Teollisuuden Voima (TVO)
  Fennovoima