Helsinki - Energy group Fortum has been asked to provide more information about the impact of cooling water from a planned nuclear reactor near the Finnish town of Loviisa, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy said Friday. Fortum's environmental impact assessment report for a third nuclear reactor near Loviisa was generally in line with legislation, the ministry said after studying the report.
Finland currently operates four reactors, of which two are located at Olkliuoto, south-western Finland and two near Loviisa, some 90 kilometres east of Helsinki.
Fortum was considering a pressurized water reactor and a boiling water reactor for the site at Loviisa.
Both Fortum and consortium Fennovoima have expressed interest in building an additional reactor near Loviisa.
The ministry said it therefore wanted the environmental impact assessment to include the possible effects of cooling water from a fourth potential reactor, citing consortium Fennovoima's interest.
A fifth reactor is being built at Olkiluoto but the project has suffered delays. Earlier this week, environmental group Greenpeace called for a halt of work at Olkiluoto, citing concerns about welding work conducted at the site.
In addition to Fennovoima and Fortum, power company Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) is also investigating the feasibility of building a sixth reactor.
In a related development, Finance Minister Jyrkii Katainen on Thursday told Finnish broadcaster YLE that in his assessment, Finland needed two more reactors - bringing the total to seven - to secure the country's future power needs.
Katainen said he did not consider the storage of the radioactive waste to be a problem.
