OREANDA-NEWS. Fennovoima has asked for permission from the Finnish government to construct a Russian AES-2006 nuclear plant at its Hanhikivi site, near Pyhajoki.

The company, which was formed in 2007 by the Voimaosakeyhtio group of Finnish industrial and energy companies, was awarded a decision-in-principle in 2010 to construct a new nuclear plant of 1500-2500 MWe capacity. At the time, Fennovoima had been considering Areva's EPR and SWR-1000 along with Toshiba's ABWR as possible reactor designs. Now that it has decided to construct Rosatom's AES-2006 plant, which uses a 1200 MWe-class reactor, Fennovoima has had to submit an application to amend the 2010 decision-in-principle to include the smaller overall plant capacity and different design.

Fennovoima's submission of supplementary information follows a recent ruling by the country's Chancellor of Justice that the original 2010 decision-in-principle remains valid despite the changes to the project. Finland's Green League - a member of the six-party coalition government - argues that the 2010 decision-in-principle is no longer valid on the basis that the new supplier and smaller reactor size represent significant changes. If the application is approved by the government, it will then be subject to parliamentary debate.

Rosatom has agreed with Voimaosakeyhtio that it would take a 34% stake in Fennovoima. The Russian state nuclear corporation has said that it would like to increase this to 49% although Voimaosakeyhtio aims to have close to 66% participation from Finnish firms.