The RAOS Project, which is part of the state corporation Rosatom and acted as a contractor in this project, was unable to reduce "none of the risks," Fennovoima said. The cooperation on design and licensing is terminated immediately, work on the Hanhikivi-1 site is being completed.

Fennovoima, the customer for the construction of the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear power plant in the Finnish municipality of Pyhäjoki, terminated the contract with the Russian corporation Rosatom. The company published a statement about this on May 2 on its website. Fennovoima said work has been delayed in recent years and the situation has been exacerbated by fighting in Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, the termination of the EPC contract is estimated to have a significant impact on Fennovoima employees as well as supply chain companies and the Pyhäjoki region,” said Fennovoima CEO Joachim Specht.

The decision to terminate the contract was not easy, Esa Härmälä, chairman of the board of Fennovoima, also noted. “In such a large project, there are significant complexities and decisions are made only after careful consideration. We are fully aware of the negative impact and are doing everything possible to mitigate it, ”the company quotes him as saying.

Rosatom, in turn, announced its "sincere disappointment" with the decision of Fennovoima's management to terminate the EPC contract with the RAOS Project. The state corporation drew attention to the fact that Fennovoima's management took this step "without a detailed discussion at the level of project shareholders." 34% of the project is owned by a company that is 100% owned by Rosatom, the Russian corporation recalls.

“The reasons for this decision are completely incomprehensible. The project is progressing, teamwork between the customer and the contractor has been established, which the CEO of Fennovoima has repeatedly informed the shareholders of the company and in the media,” Rosatom said in a statement.

RAOS conscientiously fulfills its obligations, Rosatom continues: the licenses for the construction of nuclear power plants and the main documents necessary for the issuance of the regulator by the regulator were transferred to the customer last year, so Fennovoima was expected to complete the transfer of documents to the regulator in the spring.

Rosatom strictly adheres to the principle of unconditional fulfillment of all obligations in its international activities. We reserve the right to defend our interests in accordance with existing contracts and current legislation,” the state corporation added.

The Hanhikivi-1 single-unit nuclear power plant with a Russian-designed VVER-1200 generation 3+ reactor with a capacity of 1200 MW was planned to be built on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Bothnia at a site in the municipality of Pyhäjoki. The cost of the project with the participation of Rosatom was estimated at 7-7.5 billion euros. It was expected that construction would begin in 2023, and commissioning of the plant in 2029.

In 2014, Rosatom bought 34% of Fennovoima for 35.9 million euros, the remaining 66% belong to the Finnish consortium Voimaosakeyhtio (it includes Fortum, Outokumpu, SRV). It was reported that Rosatom would finance the construction for 5 billion euros, of which 2.4 billion euros - from the National Welfare Fund (NWF). The main contractor was the Russian Titan-2, which is building the Leningrad NPP-2 using a similar technology. An application for the construction of the Hanhikivi-1 NPP was submitted to the Finnish government in 2015. In 2017, it was reported that the nuclear power plant should be built in 2024, and after the launch of Hanhikivi-1, it will produce 9 TW of energy per year without harmful emissions.