Finland eyes uranium for fifth power plant | Business | The Australian

CHINA could find an unlikely ally in Finland in calling for better access to Australia's vast uranium reserves.

As Finland embarks on an ambitious E3 billion ($5 billion) project to build a 1600 megawatt nuclear power station, to be ready in 2009, senior government officials said uranium demand worldwide was only going to increase and the key debate was how well nuclear waste was handled.

The move to more nuclear power in Finland took a decade to debate and came as deadly radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl disaster was still fresh in the public mind.

The Finnish Government approved - albeit by a slim majority - the new nuclear power station in May 2002, which will be built 270km west of the capital Helsinki, and will take the number of nuclear power stations to five for a population of 5 million.

Finland, which shares a border with Russia, was one of the worst affected nations from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster as fallout dust spread across Europe.

But according to a study by the company behind the new project, there are now twice as many Finnish people who approve of nuclear power as those who oppose.

More than 26 per cent of the national electricity market is already supplied by nuclear power and the last time that more people opposed nuclear power, as those who supported it, was in the years after Chernobyl.

Uranium mined at BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam already finds its way to the four Finnish reactors but given the impending demand from China, national officials are cautious about a worldwide supply shortfall which would see uranium prices further spiral.

Foreign Trade & Development Minister Paula Lehtomaki said that given uranium was a complicated issue, the eyes of Europe were watching the development of the country's nuclear power station.

She was cautious about calling for more uranium mining in Australia.

"At least I don't see that demand for uranium is decreasing," she said.

The key to the public change in attitude towards nuclear power is the massive waste disposal pit to be built next to the new reactor. Diving more than 400m into the earth, the pit will start taking waste from 2020 and will cost more than E1 billion to build. The current waste pit, which takes only Finnish waste, is 100m deep.

TVO corporate affairs adviser Veijo Ryhanen said the waste pit was a key factor for the company to get support from green interests.

He was reluctant to divulge how much uranium Finland imported, but the only alternatives for supply were from Canada or Australia and national opposition to uranium mining was fierce.

It would save the country 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

"This is a very important national project," the spokesman said.

"Fuel costs for uranium are far cheaper than gas or coal.

"People are for it (the project) in Finland because they have seen Nordic industries operate plants in a safe way and I believe they also trust us to take care of the waste in a safe way."

Sweden, Finland's western neighbour, has adopted a policy to rid its country of nuclear power in favour of renewable energy.

Sweden's 10 nuclear power stations are to be phased out in coming years as Finland itself falls well short of its own target of at least 500MW of wind power by 2010.

Electricity prices in Europe are rising and most European Union nations identify Russia as having a hold over energy supply through its oil and gas exports in coming decades. Its threat to starve gas supplies to Ukraine last month made many nations nervous.

Jorma Amela, senior engineer with Finland's Energy Department, said Russia could still be expected to supply energy.

"We have found Russia a reliable partner," he said. "This little exception, it didn't change opinion." He added that nuclear power was only going to be more of a part of the Finnish energy mix.

"Nuclear power is not without risks," he said.

"There are still some traces of the fallout from Chernobyl. But with modernised plants, people are more accepting.

"Local people in Finland use Australia to say uranium mining is bad for the environment and is bad for the Australian Aborigines and if it is true it is not fair to import uranium.

"TVO has to go there to see uranium is being mined properly.

"Why shouldn't there be more uranium mines. You can't use uranium for anything useful other than electricity."