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Medvedev urges more intensive work on construction of Hanhikivi NPP in Finland

The Russian prime minister made this statement after the talks with his Finnish counterpart Juha Sipila

HELSINKI, September 26. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the construction of the Hanhikivi nuclear power plant in Finland should be intensified in order to obtain a license in 2019.

He made this statement after the talks with his Finnish counterpart Juha Sipila.

"You have mentioned our big Russian project in Finland - the construction of Hanhikivi-1 nuclear power plant. We discussed it today, in particular the timing," he said.

"Getting the license for construction next year is very important for us that is why it is necessary to intensify the work, despite the fact that this is a commercial project," he stressed.

Medvedev noted that he counts on the active role of shareholders.

Currently, various preparatory works are under way at the site of the future NPP.

The contract for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Finland’s Hanhikivi peninsula, in the municipality of Pyhajoki was signed by Russia’s Rusatom Overseas (incorporated in the state nuclear corporation Rosatom) and Finland’s Fennovoima in December 2013. A ten-year fuel contract was signed with Russia’s TVEL (also incorporated in Rosatom) in the same month.

In the summer of 2015, Fennovoima lodged a license application with the Finnish authorities for the construction of Hanhikivi-1 after it acquired a more than 60% share in the project, one of the application’s terms.

It was originally planned that the licensing process would be over in 2018 but in 2017 Fennovoima said it would most probably be done only in 2019. The plant, equipped with one Russian-designed VVER-1200 pressurized water reactor with a capacity of 1200 MW, is expected to be commissioned in 2024.