Fennovoima Oy
Fennovoima is constructing a new nuclear power plant - Hanhikivi 1 - in order to produce stably priced electricity for Finnish businesses and for Finnish households, help Finland move towards energy self-sufficiency and increase competition in electricity markets.
ID: 51375423794-46
Lobbying Activity
Response to Climate change mitigation and adaptation taxonomy
24 Apr 2020
Fennovoima is a Finnish nuclear power company constructing a 1200MW nuclear power plant in northern Finland. According to the schedule, the commercial production of electricity will begin in 2028.
Fennovoima supports the European Union’s climate targets and seeks to contribute to them by constructing a new nuclear power plant, supplying 10% of Finland’s electricity consumption with sustainable, responsible and a very low-carbon energy source.
Fennovoima also supports the EU plan to direct financing towards sustainable economic activities. It is, however, vital that the critical role of nuclear power is recognized in the taxonomy. Otherwise, the ambitious climate targets cannot be met. This view is supported in the final report of the Technical Expert Group (TEG), stating that “evidence on the potential substantial contribution of nuclear energy to climate change mitigation objective was extensive and clear”.
Furthermore, Fennovoima agrees with the TEG recommendation that a group with extensive knowledge on nuclear life cycle is launched. The potential and existing environmental impacts must be assessed, and in order to achieve this, it needs to be ensured by the Commission that the necessary expertise is utilized. Fennovoima suggests that a call to members is launched in order to ensure the expertise and transparency of the group. In addition, it should be beneficial that members with robust expertise and professionalism in nuclear are included in the Platform for Sustainable Finance.
In order to achieve the ambitious climate targets, it should be clarified that emissions reductions are the key objective, not the advancement of any given technology. Therefore, power producing technologies should be assessed with the same, technology-neutral criteria. In order to ensure this, there needs to be a level playing field, e.g. in the assessment of life-cycle emissions of power production. Sometimes nuclear power has been criticized over the emissions caused by uranium mining and high-level waste disposal. However, according to the IPCC (2014), the carbon emissions of nuclear power are only 12 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour, even when the entire life cycle is accounted for (uranium mining, fuel fabrication, plant construction, use, decommissioning and long-term waste disposal). This is a clear indication that nuclear power should not be excluded from the taxonomy, but given an equal opportunity for climate change mitigation.
In the EU, responsible actions for radioactive waste and especially for HLW are taken care of by the nuclear industry and national authorities according to the EU’s Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Management Directive (2011/70/Euratom). A safe and sustainable solution to the high-level nuclear waste has been developed in Finland and the government granted the construction license for the high-level waste repository in 2015, as the first in the world to do so. Similarly to other nuclear power plants, the spent nuclear fuel produced by Fennovoima in the future will be stored and cooled in an interim storage facility under a responsible manner under the Euratom legal framework. The safe and responsible handling of the waste is further simplified by the fact that the volume of waste is extremely low compared to the amount of energy produced, and contributes a very low share of the hazardous waste produced in the EU every year. Fennovoima requests that the same technology-neutral approach should be assessed in the environmental impacts of waste disposal of different power producing technologies. The do no significant harm (DNSH)-principle should be applied not only to nuclear, but to all energy sources. The evaluation of these criteria is a demanding task, and further underlines the TEG recommendation for a swift appointment of a nuclear expert group with scientifically qualified nuclear experts to finalize the assessment of nuclear energy under the taxonomy.
Read full responseMeeting with Juho Romakkaniemi (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen) and Advocacy Strategies AG
28 Jan 2016 · Nuclear energy