International Dispute Review Board Refuses to File Financial Claims Against Rosatom Says CEO

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The International Dispute Review Board refused to file financial claims against Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom in the situation with the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear power plant (NPP) in Finland's Pyhäjoki, the contract to build which Helsinki terminated earlier this year, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev said.

"The customer terminated the contract, the first wave of litigation has already passed. And an international arbitration consisting of representatives of only Western European countries has issued an unambiguous verdict. First, the Finnish side was denied financial claims," Likhachev said.

According to Likhachev, the board ruled out that the termination of the construction contract was illegitimate.

"Secondly, an unambiguous decision was made that the contract was terminated illegitimately. This is the first and most important decision we have been waiting for," Likhachev said.

According to Likhachev, having terminated the contract with Russia to build the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear power plant, Finland can now build it using its own funds and should return the money to Rosatom.

On December 15, the Dispute Review Board has declared unlawful the decision of Finnish nuclear power company Fennovoima made in May to unilaterally terminate the contract with Rosatom for the construction of the Hanhikivi-1 NPP.

The Hanhikivi-1 project entailed the construction of a one-unit NPP based on the state-of-the-art Russian reactor VVER-1200, with the capacity of 1,200 MW. Fennovoima was the customer, owner and operator of the future NPP, while Rosatom's subsidiary RAOS Project was the general contractor. The project was at the stage of licensing and preparatory works at the construction site when the contract broke.