Framatome-Siemens awarded Hanhikivi I&C contract
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The contract was signed in Moscow yesterday in the presence of Kirill Komarov, deputy director general of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom; Willi Meixner, CEO of Siemen's Power and Gas business; and Bernard Fontana, CEO of Framatome. The contract was signed following a competitive procedure with the participation of international companies.
Under the contract, France's Framatome will supply the safety automation systems and Germany's Siemens will supply the operational I&C systems. The I&C systems of the nuclear power plant provide the control, protection and monitoring functions needed to ensure safe and reliable plant operation.
Titan-2 said the primary task within the framework of the contract will be to ensure the development of documentation necessary for licensing the project. It added that Rusatom Automated Control Systems - a subsidiary of Rosatom - will provide technical guidance and integration of work on the automated process control system for the Hanhikivi 1 project.
Titan-2 is also leading construction work at unit 1 of the Leningrad II project in Sosnovy Bor, Russia, which is the reference plant for the Finnish unit. Framatome hardware has previously been used in that project.
"The I&C contract is an important milestone for the entire Hanhikivi 1 project," said Jouni Takakarhu, project director at Fennovoima. "Framatome-Siemens has experience in both Finnish safety requirements and Russian VVER technology. Now, with all the major suppliers selected, the design and licensing work can proceed according to our schedule."
Fennovoima COO Timo Okkonen added: "Framatome and Siemens will be involved in design, implementation and analysis of the automation solutions of the Hanhikivi 1 plant. Our goal is to get the construction licence in 2021. Before that, the preliminary safety analysis report must be completed and submitted to the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK). As the related basic design work progresses, we are also preparing for the construction stage. There is still a lot of work to be done to meet the Finnish requirements in preparing the entire supply chain for the construction start."
Fennovoima signed the plant supply contract for Hanhikivi with Rusatom Overseas - Rosatom's subsidiary concerned with exports of nuclear power plants - in December 2013. Rosatom offered to build a plant using a 1200 MWe AES-2006 VVER under a fixed-price contract. The Hanhikivi project is owned by Fennovoima, in which a 34% stake is held by RAOS Voima Oy, the Finnish subsidiary set up in 2014 by Rosatom for the purpose of buying a share in the company.
Fennovoima began excavation work at the Hanhikivi site in Pyhäjoki in northern Finland in January 2016. It had originally anticipated receiving the construction licence for Hanhikivi 1 in 2018, with operation beginning in 2024. However, in September 2017 the company announced it did not expect to receive the licence until 2019 as the review of documentation related to its application was taking longer than originally envisaged. In December 2018, Fennovoima said it now expects to receive the construction licence in 2021.
