The international court sided with Rosatom in the case of nuclear power plants in Finland

The International Arbitration Court of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has declared unlawful the unilateral termination of the contract for the construction of the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear power plant in Finland by Fennovoima, writes Rosatom with reference to the general director of the state corporation Alexei Likhachev.

The court found that at the date of termination, the project was dynamically progressing and Rosatom companies demonstrated progress in obtaining a license to build the station.

“Today's victory is important, but not final. We will continue to prove our case against the Finnish draft in the courts of various instances. At the same time, I would like to add that if we had not sued, but continued to jointly implement the project, then Finland would have received the latest nuclear power plant, and with it inexpensive and green electricity.

The company noted that the final amounts to be recovered from the Finnish side will be determined by the results of all lawsuits.

Rosatom and Fennovoima signed a contract for the construction of the Hanhikivi-1 NPP in 2013. The total cost of the project of the plant with one power unit, which was planned to be implemented in the north of Finland, was estimated at €7-7.5 billion.

The issue of the permit by the Finnish authorities was delayed for several years, and in the spring of 2022 Fennovoima announced the termination of the contract. The customer pointed out that the military operation in Ukraine “has exacerbated the risks to the project”, and many logistics chains were disrupted. Rosatom saw no grounds for termination and stressed that it had fulfilled all its obligations. The Russian state corporation promised to “put an invoice” to the Finnish side.

As part of the arbitration proceedings, the companies put forward claims against each other for billions of euros: Fennovoima – for about €2 billion, Rosatom – for €3 billion.

In 2023, Rosatom, through international arbitration, demanded early repayment of a loan of €920.5 million issued to the customer of the construction of the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear power plant in Finland.

Later, in May last year, Likhachev announced the intention of the state corporation to force Finland to pay damages in court due to the refusal to cooperate on the Khanhikivi-1 NPP project. “The Finnish government has been running away from it all the time, and Finnish businesses have not had the opportunity to defend this project,” he said.