Finnish utility Fortum Corp. on Thursday said it has applied for permission to build the country's sixth nuclear power plant on the southern coast near Helsinki.
The 1,000-1,600 megawatt unit would be situated next to two existing reactors at Loviisa, 55 miles (90 kilometers) east of the capital. Construction would begin during the next decade and the plant could be operational in 2020, Fortum said.
A similar application for a new nuclear reactor has been made by Fennovoima, a consortium of companies, including Germany's E.On AG, stainless steel maker Outokumpu Oyj, regional utilities and Swedish mining and smelting group Boliden.
Finnish utility TVO, which is building Europe's first European Pressurized Reactor, or EPR, on Finland's west coast has also applied to build a new nuclear plant.
No decision has been made about a sixth reactor, which would require a government license and parliamentary approval. But some officials and industrial leaders have said that Finland needs another nuclear plant to meet growing energy demand.
The construction of Finland's fifth nuclear plant, ordered by TVO, has been plagued with problems. In October, energy officials said it will be delayed by another three years and is not expected to be online until 2012. The 1,600-megawatt EPR unit was supposed to be online this year.
The postponement _ the fourth so far since building began in 2005 _ was announced by French-German supplier Areva-Siemens, which did not give a reason.
Fortum, which is 51-percent owned by the Finnish government, is the No. 2 power company in the Nordic region.
On Thursday, it reported a 54-percent increase in fourth-quarter net profit to euro607 million ($780 million). Revenue grew to euro1.6 billion ($2 billion), from euro1.3 billion a year earlier.
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