Siemens Builds Nuclear Plant in Finland

Siemens and French nuclear technology company Framatome have received a €3 billion ($3.7 billion) contract to build a nuclear plant in Olkiluoto in western Finland, the companies announced on Thursday. Siemens owns one third of Framatome. French technology company Areva owns the rest of the company. The plant will be the first one to be built in the European Union since 1991. About 2,100 workers will be involved in the year-long construction project, according to a Siemens spokesman. The company had originally planned to get Germany’s government to serve as a guarantor for a loan for the project. That request was withdrawn, however, after members of the Greens party, the junior partner in Germany’s government coalition, opposed the project. The Greens also oppose another plan by Siemens to sell a dismanteled plutonium plant to China. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, a Social Democrat, supported the sale on a recent trip to China.