Quotes of the Day

It sounds like a bad joke, or perhaps the world's biggest public-relations challenge. The Russian firm AtomStroyExport (ASE) is trying to sell nuclear reactors to Finland — one of the countries worst affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

It's a tough job. On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear-power station's No. 4 reactor experienced a massive fire and meltdown, releasing radioactive dust that wafted over Finland. The resulting contamination forced Finnish authorities to slaughter almost a half a million farm animals and restrict fishing in rivers and lakes in central and northern Finland until 1988. Those memories die hard. Indeed, Finland's Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, regularly speaks at an annual protest marking the anniversary of Chernobyl.

The Finns are not alone in their opposition to nuclear power. Sweden is phasing out its nuclear program, and opposition to nuclear expansion remains strong in Germany and the U.K. So it seems that ASE's timing is not especially propitious.

And yet Finland needs a strong indigenous power base. A report issued earlier this year by Finergy, the Finnish Energy Industries Federation, estimates that Finland will need an additional 3,000 MW of new electricity capacity by 2015 to meet growing demand. About 33% of Finland's electricity comes from nuclear power. The government has provisionally approved the building of a fifth nuclear reactor (FIN5), with the capacity to produce up to 1,600 MW, at a cost of $2.5 billion.

But even if Finland needs more nukes, why Russian technology? After all, the Franco-German Framatome ANP and General Electric are also bidding for the contract. To make its case, ASE has adopted an American-style lobbying and public-relations campaign, a rarity in Finland. It has established a company called Oivavoima Oy (Excellent Power), with offices on Pohjoisesplanadi, an elegant tree-lined boulevard in Helsinki. From here it hopes to conquer all of Western Europe. Emphasizing that ASE uses a different reactor than the one at Chernobyl, Jari Anttila, Oivavoima's managing director, says: "There is no serious reason why the general public in Finland should question our technology."

The final decision on whether or not the FIN5 project proceeds rests with Vanhanen's cabinet, and he does not want it. "We must do the sensible thing and look to renewable energy as our final solution," says Vanhanen, who took office in June. (The FIN5 project was approved during former Social Democratic Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen's term.) Vanhanen's cabinet is slated to meet in early 2004 to decide FIN5's fate.

A few insiders believe that ASE has a good chance of winning the contract, if only because its technology is a bit cheaper than Western reactors. If it does, then the public might rediscover its dislike of nuclear power — or perhaps the ghost of Chernobyl has indeed been exorcised.

• GERARD O'DWYER | Helsinki
• Does Finland — ravaged by the 1986 Soviet nuclear disaster — really want new Russian reactors now?