Fortum said that the Loviisa 3 project is intended to increase the production of environmentally-benign, cost-effective domestic energy.
Fortum is required to carry out the environmental impact assessment (EIA) before it can submit an application for the plant. The process will look at the plant’s impacts on the environment, on health and safety, and on the local community and economy. Special attention is focused on evaluating the environmental impact of the cooling water, Fortum added.
The EIA program will be compiled for submission to the Ministry of Trade and Industry by the end of June 2007. Once the ministry’s statement on the program has been received, work on the actual EIA report can begin. Fortum said that it will submit its Loviisa EIA report to the ministry in June 2008.
In a press release, Fortum commented that curbing climate change is one of society’s most critical challenges and, to combat it, investments into renewable energy sources and carbon dioxide-free energy production, such as nuclear power, are needed.
Fortum said that if the 206TWh of nuclear power that has been generated during the Loviisa power plant’s 30 years of operation had been generated in a modern coal condensing plant, 173 million tonnes of carbon dioxide would have been released into the atmosphere.
According to Fortum, more than 80% of the electricity generated by the company is carbon dioxide-free and more than 40% comes from renewable energy sources.
