LIKE MOTHS AROUND A FLAME:

How Finland fell back in love with nuclear power (Colin Freeman, 21/05/2006, Daily Telegraph)

[F]inland - almost uniquely among the Green-hued nations of northern Europe - has now largely shed any lingering mistrust of nuclear power.

Far from mothballing the industry, it is going to the opposite extreme: alongside Olkiluoto's two existing 1970s reactors, work is under way on a new facility called Olkiluoto 3 - the first to be built in Europe since 1991, when continuing public anxiety over Chernobyl had largely sounded the death knell for future nuclear programmes.

The plant (expected to be switched on around 2010) will help Finland reduce both its CO2 emissions and its dependence on foreign imports of natural gas - the same reasons cited by Tony Blair last week in his speech endorsing a new generation of nuclear stations for Britain.

"The number one reason behind Finland's new approach is climate change," said Jorma Aurela, a senior engineer in the Finnish trade and industry ministry, who signed the licence for the new reactor.

"We are also 100 per cent dependent on Russia for our gas imports. We do not think they would ever use it as a political tool against us, but there is the question of the price, which is going up, and being certain of the availability of the supply."

Built for €3.2 billion (£2.28 billion) by the French-German consortium Framatome ANP/Siemens, and financed entirely by Finnish business, the new advanced boiling-water reactor at Olkiluoto is the same kind that Mr Blair's officials have in mind to replace Britain's ageing facilities.