The Finnish energy company Fortum is continuing with plans to possibly expand nuclear power in Sweden and Finland. But government assistance is needed.
The company announced this in a press release on Monday morning, after it completed a two-year feasibility study of the conditions for nuclear power. Fortum is not coming up with any new concrete plans for nuclear power.
However, the company states that it "will continue to develop its conditions for having new nuclear power as an alternative that can meet future demand from customers in the Nordic region". The need for electricity production in the Nordic region is expected to double by 2050, Fortum writes. That is precisely why it is important to also look at nuclear power, it says. Fortum believes that energy expansion with only weather-dependent energy will not be sustainable.
- It would lead to a very volatile electricity system with limited predictability when it comes to availability and price, the energy company writes.
- We at Fortum see that we must keep all fossil-free technologies in the toolbox also in the future.
Therefore, the company will "continue to develop the prerequisites for new nuclear power as a long-term alternative", says Markus Rauramo, CEO of Fortum, in a written comment to TT. But after the two-year preliminary study of the prerequisites for nuclear power, it also sounds like government help is needed.
Fortum writes that it is not economically sustainable to build new reactors without government risk sharing - like the one "being prepared by the government in Sweden". Fortum already owns the Loviisa nuclear power plant in Finland and is a co-owner of the Olkiluoto power plant, which includes Europe's largest single reactor, Olkiluoto 3. The Finnish government owns a good 51 percent of Fortum.
jel /ritzau/TT
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