A working group established by the ministry of economic affairs and employment is investigating the need to develop the country’s nuclear energy legislation and one of the topics being discussed is how to make the licensing system better suited to the deployment of SMRs.
“Globally, significant investments are being made on the development of SMRs and the parties showing interest are not just traditional nuclear power companies – many new organisations, such as cities, municipalities and the process industry have also expressed interest in using SMRs for producing heat and power,” Stuk said.
It said changing the existing licensing system and the instructions that supplement the legislation takes time. “Furthermore, building the necessary expertise does not happen in an instant.”
Stuk said there are no concrete plans for building an SMR in Finland, but it wants to prepare for the future. “We must be able to inform the parties considering the use of nuclear energy of the safety requirements that apply to novel nuclear power plants and must be capable of assessing the safety of the plants as necessary”, said Stuk director-general Petteri Tiippana.
Stuk has now published a report (Finnish only) on the conditions for the safe operation of SMRs. The report discusses the safety assessment and licensing of new nuclear power plant types.
Finland has four commercially operational nuclear plants at Loviisa and Olkiluoto providing about 32% of its electricity. It also has a new unit under construction at Hanhikivi.
