The feasibility study, which will last two years, “focuses on the Finnish and Swedish markets,” the group said in a statement. Wishing to “renew its strategy by focusing on sustainable electricity”, this decision comes at a time when Fortum has recorded heavy losses in Germany following the nationalization of its ex-subsidiary Uniper, which was put at risk by Russian gas cuts.
The nuclear analysis will “identify the commercial, technological and societal prerequisites” for both small modular and conventional reactor construction.
In Finland, where Fortum built the country’s first nuclear power plant at Loviisa on the south coast in 1977, the new 1,600-megawatt EPR reactor at Olkiluoto 3 is about to enter normal operation in December, after a 12-year delay.
“The challenges of implementing nuclear power are known,” said Laurent Leveugle, a research fellow at Fortum.
In Sweden, the new right-wing government promised on Friday to build new nuclear reactors to meet the country’s growing demand for electricity.
In June, the Swedish group Vattenfall also announced that it was examining the possibility of building at least two small modular reactors. According to a survey conducted in May by the trade association Finnish Energy, 60% of Finns support nuclear energy, a record for the Nordic country.
After the cancellation of a nuclear project by Fennovoima with the Russian Rosatom as a result of the war in Ukraine, no new nuclear project has been launched.
