National Coalition Party wants to grant three nuclear licences

Jyri Häkämies

Mauri Pekkarinen

Matti Vanhanen

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Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies (Nat. Coalition Party) sees the construction of more nuclear generating capacity to be a very important issue.
      Speaking on a current affairs interview programme on the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) on Saturday morning, he defended his party’s call for granting construction licences to all three companies hoping to build a new nuclear installation.
     
The government is starting talks on the issue soon. Häkämies says that it is up to the party’s chairman, Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen to decide how the National Coalition Party should react if the rest of the government does not agree to all three applications.
      Minister of Economic Affairs Mauri Pekkarinen (Centre Party) said in a YLE television news interview that Finland needs “some” more nuclear power, but he does not see a need for three new reactors.
     
Minister of Labour Anni Sinnemäki (Green) wrote on the Green League website on Friday that the experiences gleaned from the Olkiluoto 3 reactor, which is now under construction, should be evaluated before any decisions are made on licences for new nuclear facilities.
     She said that a decision on nuclear power is such a significant and far-reaching matter that it should not be made staring at a timetable; instead, it should be made calmly, at the end of a thorough assessment. “The schedule should not be deliberately slowed down, but it should also not be accelerated without good reason”, Sinnemäki worte.
     
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) has said that Parliament could vote on the construction of more nuclear energy already before Midsummer, after a decision by Supreme Administrative Court late last month, rejecting appeals against the nuclear construction projects of two of the applicants, Fortum and Fennovoima.
      After the appeals, by the local authorities of Loviisa and Ruotsinpyhtää, Pekkarinen set a five-week schedule as a goal for the matter. Initially, the issue was expected to come before Parliament in the autumn.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Pekkarinen sets timetable for nuclear decision (4.3.2010)
  Nuclear plant application to come before Parliament this spring (1.3.2010)

Helsingin Sanomat