Uncertainty over Fennovoima nuclear project worries local developers. Doubt about whether a nuclear project will go ahead is worrying landowners in the northern Finnish municipality of Pyhäjoki, reports STT. Many landowners in Northern Ostrobothnia are holding off planned construction of their own while waiting to see whether a construction license will be approved for the proposed Fennovoima nuclear power station. It is to be built in Pyhäjoki, about 100 km south of Oulu. Municipal director Matti Soronen told the Finnish news agency STT that the owners of a number of plots of land have applied for extensions on their own building permits so that they can postpone breaking ground. The Fennovoima consortium says it expects to obtain a construction license for next year for what would be the nation’s third nuclear power plant – and its first entirely new one in more than four decades. Fennovoima has signed a contract with RAOS Project, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned nuclear firm Rosatom, to build the Hanhikivi plant. The Russian firm owns 34 percent of Fennovoima. So far Fennovoima has only provided a fraction of the documents needed for the application process to the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK). The company has pledged to deliver them all by the end of this year. It had originally hoped to attain the permit this year.
YLE 5th Aug 2018 read more »