nuclear-news

Finland’s parliament greenlights Fennovoima nuclear plant despite opposition

Parliamentary committee greenlights Fennovoima nuclear plant in Finland Alaska Dispatch NewsYLE NewsEye on the Arctic November 27, 2014 Parliament’s Finance Committee voted Thursday to grant a new decision-in-principle for the construction of a nuclear power plant by the Finnish power consortium Fennovoima.

Members of Parliament from the Green League and the Center Party opposed the vote.

The committee upheld the government’s decision to accept changes to the application for a new nuclear power plant to be constructed at Pyhäjoki in northern Ostrobothnia. Members voted 14-2 to give a green light to the Finnish power consortium Fennovoima, which has contracted the Russian state-owned nuclear plant provider Rosatom to build the nuclear facility. Rosatom currently owns 34 percent of the proposed nuclear project. MPs opposing the decision were the Greens’ Johanna Karimäki and the Center Party’s Antti Kaikkonen………

The Greens have long objected to the addition of nuclear capacity and have called for greater investment in renewable energy sources — and in fact based their participation in Jyrki Katainen’s administration on a government undertaking not to construct any new nuclear power plants.

At the time of their departure from government, Greens leader Ville Niinistö also criticised the decision to ink a major deal with a Russian state-owned company at a time when the EU had imposed trade sanctions against Russia over its role in the conflict in Ukraine.

This story is posted on Alaska Dispatch News as part of Eye on the Arctic, a collaborative partnership between public and private circumpolar media organizations. http://www.adn.com/article/20141127/parliamentary-committee-greenlights-fennovoima-nuclear-plant-finland

December 1, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Finland, politics