Finland's Fortum says building new nuclear power is too expensive, for now

HELSINKI (Reuters) -New nuclear power production capacity is not commercially viable to build for now, based on the current Nordic power market outlook of low prices, Finnish utility Fortum said on Monday.

The company on Monday concluded a two-year study into the feasibility of new nuclear power but said it would focus on renewable energy and nuclear lifetime extensions to cover growing electricity demand in the Nordics for now.

"New nuclear could provide new supply to the Nordics earliest in the second half of the 2030s, if market and regulatory conditions are right," Fortum CEO Markus Rauramo told reporters.

He said Fortum would continue to explore new nuclear generation and pumped hydropower as long-term options in Sweden and Finland.

Fortum said building new nuclear reactors would require a solid risk sharing framework similar to the one being prepared by the Swedish government.

"We are not saying that the state has to pay for it, but that the risk must be shared with the different parties: technology providers, investors, utilities, and also the state," Laurent Leveugle, Vice President for New Nuclear at Fortum, told Reuters, declining to give out any cost or price estimates for new nuclear production.

Government backing in the form of a state loan or a guarantee was an option, he said.

"Decarbonisation of industries and societies through electrification is expected to significantly increase, even double, power demand in the Nordics towards 2050," Rauramo said in a statement.

This new demand in the Nordics in the next 5-10 years will be met with new onshore wind and solar power coupled with flexibility and storage solutions and running existing nuclear plants for longer, he added.

Fortum is exploring building hydropower stations in the Nordics from 2030 onwards, in addition to its existing pipeline of new renewables projects. It has also decided to extend the lifetime of its Loviisa nuclear power plant, the CEO said.

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen in Helsinki and Nora Buli in Oslo, editing by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, Bernadette Baum, Terje Solsvik and David Evans)