Caught between global warming and an energy crisis, Blair looks north for answers: "Can UK be persuaded to follow the Finns and learn to love nuclear energy?

Luke Harding in Olkiluoto
Friday April 14, 2006
The Guardian


It is an unlikely spot for a nuclear power station. In the bay, sea eagles patrol the sky. There is even the odd moose. But this rugged west coast of Finland, surrounded by forests and lichen-encrusted boulders, is to be home to Europe's biggest and newest nuclear reactor.
The Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) project is the first nuclear plant to be constructed in the EU since the Chernobyl disaster 20 years ago, and its progress is being followed by British ministers and environmentalists as Tony Blair seeks solutions to the looming energy crisis.
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This weekend the cross-party environmental audit committee is due to publish a long-awaited report on how the UK can meet future energy demands, and senior members are likely to express reservations about replacing the country's ageing nuclear power plants, citing security as a concern.
But Downing Street is said to favour investing in a new generation of reactors, a division which mirrors the debate in Finland three years ago. Environmentalists there now admit they made fundamental errors in their campaign.
Finland was traditionally not much of a nuclear enthusiast, and for much of the post-Chernobyl 80s and 90s nuclear energy was a virtual taboo. But in 2002 MPs voted by 107 votes to 92 to construct the country's fifth reactor.
Those in favour said the state-of-the-art plant at Olkiluoto, three hours from the capital Helsinki, would combine the latest nuclear technology with the world's biggest turbine, at a cost of �3bn (�2bn). Finland had be"