Nuclear power in Europe

The Finnish power group Fennovoima has selected the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom to build its nuclear reactor in Pyhäjoki, northern Finland.

Fennovoima said on Tuesday that it will propose to its shareholders that a deal with Rosatom be signed by the end of this year, with the Russian firm taking a 34 percent stake in the project.

HELSINKI, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Finnish nuclear consortium Fennovoima said it was considering scaling back its planned nuclear reactor project in northern Finland after the exit of its top investor German utility E.ON.

It said it would choose Japan's Toshiba if it went ahead with original plans for a large, 1,600-megawatt reactor, dropping Areva who was previously another candidate.

Areva, Toshiba and Russia's Rosatom could be suppliers for a medium-sized reactor, Fennovoima said.

It said it aimed to choose the reactor supplier this year.

Chief Executive Luc Oursel said the reactor in Olkiluoto will ultimately cost about 8 billion euros, same as a similar reactor it is building in Flamanville, in northern France. That's well over the last cost estimate of around EUR6.4 billion.

"Our estimation is that the whole project (in Finland) will have a cost in constant euros close to Flamanville," Mr. Oursel said during a press conference.

It is one thing for a green pressure group to claim nuclear power is too expensive, but quite another when the charge comes from the head of an atomic industry pioneer such as General Electric.

GE built some of the world's first commercial atomic reactors in the 1950s and has remained an industry leader since its nuclear joint venture with Japan's Hitachi in 2007.