Fennovoima initiates arbitration proceedings against Rosatom, seeking 2 bln euros

MOSCOW. Aug 22 (Interfax) - Finland's Fennovoima has initiated arbitration proceedings against Rosatom, the Russian state-owned atomic energy company, over the failed Hanhikivi-1 nuclear power plant project, Joachim Specht, the chief executive of Fennovoima, told Helsingin Sanomat.

Fennovoima is suing Rosatom for around 2 billion euros, including a down payment of 800 million euros made to RAOS Project, the Finnish subsidiary of Rosatom, he said.

Specht said Rosatom had warned Fennovoima of further project delays earlier this year, that there was a risk it would be delayed by several years. This was one of the reasons Finland had to terminate the Hanhikivi-1 project, he said.

In early May, Finnish energy corporation Fennovoima, 34%-owned by Rosatom, unilaterally terminated the contract to build the Hanhikivi 1 nuclear plant with Rosatom's affiliate RAOS Voima Oy. Later, Fennovioma withdrew its application for the construction license, citing considerable project delays in recent years and the risks exacerbated by Russia's military operation in Ukraine.

Rosatom expects to recover all its costs relating to the Hanhikivi project in Finland after the latter walked away from the construction contract, and is ready to apply for international arbitration, Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev has said.

"Only one project - the Hanhikivi NPP in Finland - has been stopped. The situation is legally contestable, and we will turn to an international arbitration in order to recover all our expenditures in full. There was a precedent: the Belene [NPP] project in Bulgaria, for the stoppage of which we were awarded over 600 million euros by an international arbitration court," Likhachev said at the beginning of July.