11.09.2007 Lauri Myllyvirta

Delays to the Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor will cost electricity users in Finland, and other Nordic countries, €3 billion, a heavy industry organization has revealed.

Olkiluoto, Finland - September 11th 2007,

"Olkiluoto 3 has yet again proved to be a disaster. The Finnish government must accept its costly mistake and immediately abandon the project" said Lauri Myllyvirta, Greenpeace Finland energy campaigner "It is not too late for them to invest in the true solutions to climate change, clean energy based on renewable technologies, and energy efficiency, which they admitted was entirely possible at the time investment into OL3 was agreed."

OL3 costs have run over by at least €1.5 billion due to massive delays. Today Elfi, the Finnish consortium of large electricity users, calculated that this will lead to € 3 billion indirect costs to electricity users. At the time OL3 was agreed, the Finnish government claimed it would cost 0.5 billion more to invest in alternative energy sources.

"That the delays to the Olkiluoto nuclear reactor will cost the Finnish public €3 billion proves that it would have been far cheaper for Finland to invest in a clean renewable energy future. The Finnish public were bullied into accepting OL3, as they were told that the cost of alternatives to nuclear power would be much higher. Today’s announcement proves the opposite to be true" continued Myllyvirta.

Finland is now way off track for meeting its greenhouse gas emission reductions targets, under the Kyoto Protocol and lags way behind most of the EU in new renewable technologies, such as wind, solar, and biogas. If a sustainable energy future had been implemented in 2001, when the OL3 decision was made, Finland would have had a far greater chance of reaching its Kyoto commitments. Wind power alone could have supplied half of the OL3 power output in 2010.

The OL3 project is the only example of construction on a European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), the flagship of the so-called nuclear renaissance, aggressively promoted as a low-cost "mature" technology. The chronic delays and setbacks at the Olkiluoto plant show that quite the opposite is true: complications, escalating costs, chronic safety issues, delays and a lack of transparency remain the true face of the nuclear industry.

The story now unfolding in Olkiluoto is also typical of other nuclear reactor projects across the world. The latest Chinese reactor was finished two years behind schedule because of similar problems, in Taiwan the reactor project is five years behind schedule. In the UK, the latest nuclear reactor cost double the initial estimated price.

"As we are seeing in Finland, nuclear power undermines the true solutions to climate change. It is a dangerous, costly distraction. Governments across the world must learn the lessons from OL3 and not make the same mistakes the Finnish government has" concluded Myllyvirta.

Contact:
Lauri Myllyvirta, Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace Nordic
+358 50 3625 981

The Economics of Nuclear Power. May 2007. Greenpeace International.