The Finnish Government has granted an operating licence to Finland’s power group Fortum for the life extension of the Loviisa-1 and Loviisa-2 nuclear power units. The new operating licence allows energy production at the 1 GW Loviisa nuclear power plant, located in southern Finland, until the end of 2050. The nuclear plant’s two reactors were commissioned in 1977 and 1981, and the current operating licences were due to expire at the end of 2027 for unit-1 and at the end of 2030 for unit-2.

In addition, an operating licence was granted by the government for the units until the end of 2055, as required by preparations for their decommissioning. Fortum was also granted an operating licence to use the buildings and warehouses necessary for nuclear fuel and nuclear waste management until the end of 2090. Fortum also operates the Olkiluoto nuclear plant, located in southwestern Finland, which currently holds three units: Olkiluoto 1 and 2 (880 MW each) and Olkiluto 3 (1.6 GW).

At the end of 2020, nuclear represented 16% of Finland’s total installed capacity with 2.8 GW (without Olikiluoto 3). Nuclear production reached 23.6 TWh in 2021, or 33% of Finland’s total power generation.