nuclear-news

Another utility company pulls out of uneconomic nuclear power project

Utilities are pulling out of nuclear projects across Europe  as uncertainty over energy prices makes them too risky. EON’s withdrawal from Finland follows its decision in September 2011, along with SSE Plc and RWE AG (RWE), to give up building nuclear plants in the
U.K

EON Withdraws From Finnish Nuclear Project on Price Slide, Bloomberg By Torsten Fagerholm – Oct 24, 2012   EON AG, Germany’s biggest utility, plans to withdraw from the Fennovoima Oy nuclear reactor in Finland  after European energy prices declined, threatening the viability of the project.
Fennovoima, in which EON owns a 34 percent stake, plans to begin
construction of a 1,600 to 1,800-megawatt reactor at Pyhaejoki in
northern Finland in late 2016, Timo Kallio, executive vice president
of construction, said today in an interview in Tampere, Finland. EON,
the sole provider of nuclear expertise to the project, will exit the
venture in the first quarter, Roger Strandahl, a spokesman for EON in
Malmoe, Sweden , said today by telephone.
“We weren’t expecting it,” Fennovoima Chairman Pekka Ottavainen said
by phone today. “EON’s decision to withdraw means that next spring
when we ask for more funding to take the project to the next stage, we
need to resolve the question of who will replace EON.”
Utilities are pulling out of nuclear projects across Europe  as uncertainty over energy prices makes them too risky. EON’s withdrawal from Finland follows its decision in September 2011, along with SSE Plc and RWE AG (RWE), to give up building nuclear plants in the
U.K…..

October 25, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Finland