OREANDA-NEWS. Russia's Cabinet of Ministers has approved up to RUB150 billion (USD 2.3 billion) in funding from the country's sovereign wealth fund for the Hanhikivi 1 nuclear power plant project in Finland.

Russian ministerial approval was granted on 30 December via order number 2795-pc, which was published on 16 January on the government's official website for legal notices. The project has been placed on the fund's list of "self-supporting infrastructure projects in terms of financial assets". Atomenergoprom is named as the "initiator" of the project. Part of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Atomenergoprom is a 100% state-owned holding company that unites the country's civilian nuclear industry.

According to the document, the National Wealth Fund - as it is known in Russia - will allocate the Hanhikivi 1 project RUB35.5 billion (USD 549 million) in 2015, RUB51.2 billion (USD 792 million) in 2016 and RUB41.3 billion (USD 638 million) in 2017. There were no details of when the remaining RUB22 billion (USD 339 million) would be allocated.

Most of the funding will take the form of a loan guaranteed by export credit agencies, while the remainder will be "other loans".

Hanhikivi 1 is expected to provide revenues to the Russian federal budget of RUB338 billion (USD 5.2 billion) throughout the whole duration of the project. These revenues will be received as shares issued at par value by Atomenergoprom at an interest rate set by the Russian Central Bank to reflect future fluctuations in the value of the euro.

To be built in Pyhajoki, in northern Finland, Hanhikivi 1 is scheduled to start generating electricity by 2024. The project is owned by Finland's Fennovoima, of which another Finnish company, Voimaosakeyhtiö, has a 66% share. The remaining 34% of Fennovoima is held by RAOS Voima Oy, a Finnish subsidiary set up last year by Russia's Rosatom specifically to hold a stake in the company.

Voimaosakeyhtiö announced in November it had increased its share in the planned plant to 55.5% from 50.2%. The Finnish government has said that a construction licence for the project will only be issued once Finnish ownership is more than 60%, which must be achieved before the end of June 2015.

Hanhikivi 1 will be a Gidropress-designed AES-2006 plant, which uses a 1200 MWe-class reactor. Gidropress is a subsidiary of Rosatom.