Minna Forsström, Project Director, Fennovoima Oy:
– It is my first visit to Russia. I was greatly impressed by the exhibition; many companies from many countries participated in it. I took part in the round-table session on competitiveness of nuclear power as compared to other energy sources. Also, I was interested in the round-table sessions on safety and projects funded by ROSATOM. When planning construction of Pyh?joki NPP, we were looking for a real partner who had experience, was motivated and played several roles. ROSATOM is both the owner and vendor; this corporation takes on the major part of the construction financing. We believe that if ROSATOM is capable of such partner relations, the mutual motivation of the participants will allow implementing this project. The project cost is within € 4-6 billion. It is for 10 years. Now we develop our cooperation and information exchange with ROSATOM. Russian specialists have already started the design work, but the actual work on the site has just started. We will start building the access road and in the nearest time will carry out all necessary engineering surveys.
The plant operation period is 60 years, and maybe even 80 years. Then, we have obligations to reprocess and remove radioactive waste. Since ROSATOM is one of the largest NPP owners, there are possibilities for servicing; there are opportunities for vendors. And possibly, there will be a talk on building the second reactor of the plant. Therefore, we think about the cooperation with ROSATOM in a 100-year perspective.
Finland doesn’t have many natural resources. Sun doesn’t shine often and wind doesn’t blow every day, so we need to have some basic energy generation and nuclear is a chance for us. We also believe nuclear power could be a solution to the global warming problem, because owing to it we will reduce atmospheric releases of carbon dioxide. Nuclear power is ecologically harmless and can be one of weapons against the climate change, and it also can balance the situation in the energy market.
Sándor Nagy, CEO of MVM Paks NPP:
– The accident at Fukushima was a very serious shock for the industry and some countries have changed their attitudes towards nuclear. But in Hungary the public has always supported it. After the accident there was a small drop of production, but soon everything rebound and we came back to the public acceptance indicator of over 70%. I think the industry will develop normally. We see that due to strong environmental pollution China is going to build environment-friendly nuclear facilities of 58,000 MW capacity. They are building 29 reactors and 20 reactors more are at the stage of design. And there will be 30 new ones. India also is building. All countries who are not rich in resources don’t have another choice but to build nuclear power plants. Besides, nuclear power is a safe and reliable source of energy. In Hungary the load factor is 90%, and energy is cheap on the top of that. We are going to maintain and develop nuclear power.
The Hungarian government made a decision to build two additional power units. We are not talking about raising power capacity, only about maintaining it, given the fact that we need 3-4 years for licensing, 5-6 years for construction and commissioning. The existing units still operate, but they will be shutdown in future and the new units will maintain the current power capacity during 60 years. Hungary can import energy, but if one relies on import only, it will be clear that we retreat. Hungary is not rich with resources. We have a lot of brown coal, but because of ecology issues we cannot process it using the clean coal technology. We don’t have hydro plants, pumped storages, while natural gas is costly. Therefore, we don’t have an alternative to building nuclear power plants. We have positive experience in cooperating with Russia and our choice of ROSATOM to expand Paks NPP is very logical for the industry and the country.
We are getting on well with the Russian equipment and technologies. We highly appraise the Russian fuel, which is considered one of the best in the world. The cooperation with the Russian research institutes is very fruitful. We would like to expand it. Hungarian scientists will be glad to participate in designing Generation IV reactors. I think the future is for Generation IV atomic reactors. As to material, a 1000 MW reactor requires 162 tons of uranium [a year]. It may happen that in 60-100 years there will be no any uranium left. It is necessary to close the nuclear fuel cycle, reprocess waste, develop new fuel and build up resource inventories for the nearest 2,000 years.
Takuya Hattory, President of Japan Atomic Industry Forum:
– I have visited the forum since 2008 and the event is becoming more and more international. It straightforwardly advances to the international arena. ROSATOM plays an increasingly important role in the world and the Japanese are impressed by the work of the state-owned company.
After the accident at Fukushima, in Japan the situation with promotion of nuclear is very difficult. Before the accident we had 54 reactors across the country, we were the third in the world. But now we are in decline and the main reason is people’s opinions about nuclear, as well as organizations and specialists who work in this area. The most important and difficult task is to regain trust. In future, nuclear power is very important for Japan. We will rebuild the nuclear power system and regain trust in it.
We communicate very closely with Russian specialists in decommissioning, as well as clean-up, and study the radiation problems jointly. We are learning much from Russia and will continue doing so.
