Franco-German Consortium on the Home Stretch

New Nuclear Power Plant in Finland

The Finnish power utility TVO (Teollisuuden Voima Oy) announced this morning (16.10.) that it will continue negotiations about the construction of a new reactor with the preferred bidder, the Franco-German consortium
Framatome ANP - Siemens AG, however not yet excluding the other alternatives. The intention is to build an EPR (European Pressurized Water Reactor) with a capacity of 1,600 megawatts (MW) at the Olkiluoto site. The reactor, to be financed entirely from private sources, is to start commercial operation in 2009.

The German Atomic Forum sees TVO`s decision as vivid proof of the excellent nuclear know-how in Germany and France. Furthermore, the consistent pursuit of the expansion plans in Finland disproves yet again the claim that nuclear power is on the way out in Europe.

The EPR was jointly designed by Framatome and Siemens, with technical assistance by several French and German power supply utilities, who financed its development to a major extent. Compared with the existing pressurized water reactor lines in the two countries, the EPR is designed to control even extremely unlikely severe accidents involving core meltdown in a way that any radiological consequences are confined to the plant itself.

DEUTSCHES ATOMFORUM E.V.