Euractiv
Summary
Energy giant Fortum is updating its strategy with a return to Nordic roots after the investment fiasco with Germany’s Uniper.
In line with developments elsewhere in Europe, alongside conventional reactors, the Finnish state-owned (51%) company will ”explore prerequisites” for small modular reactors (SMRs), a technology in which Washington is leading.
In a two-year feasibility study announced on Monday, the company said it would look into the commercial, technological and societal, political, legal and regulatory conditions for a nuclear ramp-up in Finland and Sweden.
Fortum is emerging from a painful investment in Uniper, which Berlin nationalised last month, a move seen in Helsinki as an unavoidable measure and a relief despite heavy losses.
Now Fortum says to achieve competitive construction times and to tackle costs, future ventures are to be based on partnerships between nuclear generating and district heating companies, industrial off-takers of power and heat, nuclear utilities and start-up companies.
Besides conventional reactors, special attention will be given to small modular reactors (SMRs), which according to Laurent Leveugle, leading the work at Fortum, ”are promising in terms of taking nuclear power forward to future generations”.
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