Greenpeace activists in Finland spent the night 80 meters in the air on a crane at a nuclear power plant under construction in Olkiluoto. The protest is a direct reaction to the quality problems at the construction site, which has lead to over one thousand reported breaches of safety standards.
TVO, the company that ordered plant, estimated in the application to the Finnish government that a 1600 MW reactor would cost EUR2.5 billion and take four years to build. Now the costs are exceeding four billion euros and the project will take at least six years.
The project was supposed to require no public subsidies. In reality it is reliant on an export guarantee financed by French and Swedish taxpayers and a dirt-cheap loan from public banks.
As the Finnish government begins preparing a long-term climate strategy, it needs to take a hard look at nuclear power’s track record of failing to deliver on promises of being the cheap, clean solution to climate change.
Finland needs a plan to phase out existing reactors. They’re really not comfortable places to sleep. More images of the occupation from Flickr.