Nuclear Finlandisation - Finnish Government Agrees on 100 years Russian Nuclear Dependency

“It is a 100-year-long project. 10 years to construct, 60 years to operate, then hopefully 20 years to operate to get an extension approved by the state, and then 10 years to decommission,” (ROSATOM Overseas’ representative Roman Dyukarev)

http://en.itar-tass.com/economy/749996 

There is a hell of a discussion going on in Finland about finlandisation. I think that is just a part of modern finlandisation. You are not allowed to talk about the subject - economical-political decisions based on not conflicting the Russian interests if our own business interests are threatened at the same time.

Our former Minister of the Environment, Mr. Ville Niinistö made the discussion by mentioning the word finlandisation on Financical Times interview a few days ago http://search.ft.com/search?queryText=ville+niinist%C3%B6 . Leading politicians have called Minister Niinistö unpatriotic for his outcome on the issue. Also leading opposition parties have been criticizing Niinistö for using that ugly word. And president Sauli Niinistö was also giving a statement that he cannot see any finlandisation now. http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/ 

But is it really so? I'm afraid it is not.

If we are closing our eyes to the fact that Russian influence on our energy policy will be sealed for next 100 years if we accept this Fennovoima-ROSATOM -project when 2/3 of Finns are against it as well as most of energy experts, so this could be called FINLANDISATION in it's gravest form.

So Finland is accepting a Russian nuclear weapons company under straight control of Vladimir Putin to be running a nuclear power plant for a century, causing huge losses to Finnish taxpayers and making it very difficult to develop domestic renewable energy industry. That is what I would call UNPATRIOTIC.

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By the way, Ville Niinisto used to be a researcher on political history - especially on finlandisation, before he entered to political career....

JPS

ROSATOM's Mission and the Interests of the Finnish People and EU

"ROSATOM's Mission is to maintain national interests in defence, nuclear safety and nuclear power by achieving global leadership in advanced technologies, competencies and innovations."

http://www.rosatom.ru/en/about/mission/ 

Should we be more critical to ROSATOM-Fennovoima NPP-project?    Arts Picture by Jukka Seppälä / Creator's Fingerprints

This mission statement on ROSATOM's own website should have been read with care by Finnish politicians and ministers long ago. 

Wishful thinking belongs to real politics of Finland on areas where it can lead to severe difficulties when it's time to pay the bill.

The owner and operator of Olkiluoto NPP, TVO, pays a hard bill of about 100 million euros for planning costs for Olkiluoto-4 nuclear reactor. The company was just today denied the licence to construct the 4th reactor of Olkiluoto NPP in Eurajoki, South-Western Finland.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/economic_minister_says_fennovoima_reactor_can_go_ahead_greens_may_quit_cabinet/7471840

Olkiluoto-3 NPP in 2012                                           Photo: JS / C.F.

And they have to manage to run a super-expensive OL-3 EPR-reactor, having electricity price somewhere between 65-120 e/MWh, while Nordic market price for power varies somewhere between 25-39 e/MWh. And the reason for building nuclear power was 'cheap power for the industry'.....

It is quite strange how many Finnish politicians ignore to see the geopolitical importance of nuclear power business to Russian leaders, though ROSATOM openly tell it on their official website. 

Finnish government (all parties but the green movement) are giving a false signal to the Russian people and to president Vladimir Putin by accepting cooperation with a Russian state owned nuclear weapons company that is governed by -  Mr. Putin. If we are willing not to accept the Russian invasion on Ukraine, so we shouldn't be playing atomic games with the Russian army nuclear arms manufacturer - and funding it's activities. It is a risky and rough way to go and it seems that most part of the funding for the Fennovoima-ROSATOM NPP project is coming from Finnish taxpayers, EU-citizens. The recent polls show that 2/3 of Finns are against Fennovoima-ROSATOM plan. Private money and plenty of energy companies and consulting companies have found it to be too expensive, risky and unprofitable to be realized.

Olkiluoto-3 Fiasco should be ringing the alarm bells for the nation. The 10 billion euro project is not scheduled to be generating power to the grid before late 2018 - the original deadline for on grid was 2009. Nobody knows if it will be finished by this latest time estimate. I hope not. I have written about it several times before on my blogs: http://solarwindpronet.blogspot.fi/2012/12/olkiluoto-3-epr-to-cost-at-least-85.html  and  http://solarwindpronet-suomi.blogspot.fi/2013/05/tehdaan-olkiluoto-3-ja-4-voimaloista.html .

It is widely known fact that OL-3 is one of the most problematic  NPP projects in the world. And now our own politicians admit it too:  http://yle.fi/uutiset/vapaavuori_olkiluoto_3_on_teollisuushistoriamme_surkein_tapaus/7472933 (in Finnish).

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The Russian should now face the renewable energy future            Photo: JS / C.F.

If we are willing to cooperate with the Russian Federation on energy business, it should be mainly on renewable energy. 

That would support heavily EU's sustainable energy plans and give the Russians a clear signal which way to go in the future. Distributed power generation and intelligent grids are here to stay - and they should belong to the future of modern Russia - because we share the same planet.

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By the way, I Highly appreciate the outcome of our Minister of the Environment Ville Niinistö on Fennovoima-Rosatom issue! He's a brave man and a honest, good politician! Wishing him Good Luck!   http://yle.fi/uutiset/vihreat_lahtee_hallituksesta_jos_ydinvoimalupa_hyvaksytaan/7472441 (in Finnish).

JPS