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Earth Power Technology

Finland To Introduce Law Next Year Phasing Out Coal (reuters.com) 176

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Finland will introduce legislation next year to phase out coal and increase carbon taxes, a top government official told Reuters, which would require the country to find alternative energy sources to keep its power system stable. Coal produces roughly 10 percent of the energy consumed by Finland, which is the Nordics' heaviest coal consumer and burned about 4.1 million tons of oil equivalent in 2016. "This strategy has a goal of getting rid of coal as an energy source by 2030 [...] We have to write a law [...] and that will be next year," Riku Huttunen, director general in Finland's energy department, said. The law will, however, leave "room for manoeuvre" to ensure security of supply, he said, meaning coal-fired power plants could still be available to avoid the risk of blackouts. Finland is increasing its nuclear capacity, which could replace coal. But that may not be sufficient, a Nordic power trader said, as Finland will receive less nuclear power from neighboring Sweden, which is phasing out two reactors. Helsinki is raising its nuclear power capacity to reduce dependency on Russian energy imports. Two new reactors, Olkiluoto 3 and Hanhikivi 1, are due to go online in 2018 and 2024, respectively.
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Finland To Introduce Law Next Year Phasing Out Coal

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  • So no one will ever be able to use it again...
    • by Kazymyr ( 190114 )

      If coal is illegal, then only outlaws will have coal!

  • lowered demand same supply
  • by Anonymous Coward

    That's how you actually get clean coal: Stop using that shit.

  • by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Sunday September 03, 2017 @11:08AM (#55132655) Homepage

    At least some countries have the balls to give the finger to the ignorant CND hippies who still equate nuclear power with nuclear weapons because they have the square root of fuck all clue about the different types of reactor design.

    • by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Sunday September 03, 2017 @11:19AM (#55132715)
      That and they seem to be on top of proper disposal [wikipedia.org] unlike here in the US and elsewhere. These social democracies seem to be the least dysfunctional and have the highest quality of life for citizens. It's a shame it can't be properly reprocessed but that's the state of affairs in the world today. Nuclear is a far better option than coal for a variety of reasons. Until battery capacity becomes extremely cheap, countries will need a near zero emission method of creating necessary base loads if they want to generate energy responsibly.
      • by jedidiah ( 1196 )

        When you are the size of one of several large American cities in terms of population, EVERY problem is tiny and a lot easier to solve.

        • by amorsen ( 7485 )

          So, dissolve the US, make the states into nations, and every problem is tiny and a lot easier to solve?

          • That would be to easy asa solution.

            Because then they later would need to reform a North American Union like the European Union, where the "central government" equalizes peoples rights over the whole Union.

            That concept would be completely alien to the current citizens of the land of the free.

        • by dave420 ( 699308 )

          Then why don't smaller states in the US function as well? This "but we so biiig" argument is banal and only ensures to further the problems.

      • Especially when you have massive tracts of stable, uninhabited mountain ranges in which to stash the radioactive waste. I often wonder why the quality of life surveys in places like Finland are so high - I think it correlates with the weather, if quality of life weren't high the weather would certainly drive population to zero.

      • These social democracies seem to be the least dysfunctional and have the highest quality of life for citizens.

        You're right, and the US could have an even better standard of living, but no-one quite does propaganda like the US [esquire.com] so you have to spend all that tax money on never ending overseas wars and the worst health system possible instead of a decent life for everyone.

      • That and they seem to be on top of proper disposal unlike here in the US and elsewhere.

        Waste disposal certainly seems like the most important issue, but I would like to know more about the other end of the logistical chain: the supply side. It seems always to be tacitly assumed that this is under control. The other thing I wonder about is why we don't use the waste products for something - isn't a lot of energy released still? That is after all why radioactive waste is radioactive.

    • I'm in the States and I'll be happy to support nuclear when you can find a way to get the 20% of my citizenry to stop believing in crap like "Government's not the solution, it's the problem". Until then you're basically one round of lobbying and anti-bureaucracy sentiment away from the kinds of lax safety regulations that resulted in Fukushima. Exhibit B right here [newsweek.com] while I'm at it.
      • When I lived out there it was pesticide warehouses catching fire (with multiple safety violations leading to the accidents). We left just about as quickly as we could.

      • I'm in the States and I'll be happy to support nuclear when you can find a way to get the 20% of my citizenry to stop believing in crap like "Government's not the solution, it's the problem".

        Baby steps.

        You need to get them to stop believing WiFi hubs cause cancer, first. Until they can tell the difference between non-ionizing radiation and ionizing radiation, they are a lost cause.

    • With the predominant western winds in Finnland, during a catastrophe the fallout will be blown over Russia and the Baltic states.
      You might think, not bad if the Russians get it back, what they deserve.
      But then again we will have something like 4million Finns and 12million from the Baltic states evacuated and being displaced over the rest of the EU.

      I wonder how many states will do a BREXIT when we get 20million refugees inside of Europe.

      Ah .... that was not your point, or was it? Seems I got drawn away ...

    • Too bad it requires far more coal to process the uranium than what you would save using nuclear energy. What? You thought Uranium 238 is everywhere and simple to extract?

      • Two things prove you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

        First, if it took more energy to produce the uranium than what they got out of it then no one would do it. Well, people burn ethanol so perhaps that's not completely true. What they wouldn't do is use nuclear power to produce nearly 20% of the electricity in the USA. The only way to "prove" nuclear power is a net negative is to use a lot of assumptions that cannot be proven, like the future costs of decommissioning a site. This ofte

        • Oh [phys.org]

          • The article you linked to is meaningless unless nuclear is actually compared to something. It's a bit like someone arguing that we cannot possibly eat steak tonight because of this that and the other thing. Well, that might be true but people have to eat, otherwise people die. After looking at the options it may just turn out that in fact we can eat steak tonight.

            Well, let's look at our options:
            - Status quo and all the pros and cons that go with it
            - Nuclear power
            - Starvation

            There is no fourth option beca

    • ...ignorant CND hippies who still equate nuclear power with nuclear weapons because they have the square root of fuck all clue...

      Apart from being factually wrong about what hippies are/were and what they believe, I think being abusive is only likely to hurt your credibilty. Abuse and violence is what people resort to, when they don't have the wit to produce a sober argument.

  • system stable.

    Might I suggest importing it from Russia?

  • Their EPR nuclear reactor (Olkiluoto 3) will finally go online? Sure took them long enough.

  • Two new reactors, Olkiluoto 3 and Hanhikivi 1, are due to go online in 2018 and 2024, respectively.

    These plants are most likely to be of either Russian design or have significant Russian parts.

    I can't explain why the Finns decided to involve the Russians at all.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Olkiluoto 3 is built by French Areva, and is currently 9 years behind schedule. It should have been up an running in 2010.

      Hanhikivi would be built by Russian Rosatom, which of course could have some political issues. It isn't even clear that building will start (though preparations are already being made at the site), the project status is "proposed". So I won't be holding my breath until i can power my house with that sweet and cuddly fission power...

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olkiluoto_Nuclear_Power_Pl

    • I can't explain why the Finns decided to involve the Russians at all.

      Because the Russians build the reactors (relatively) cheaply and they actually meet the accorded schedules and budget (yes, surprising, I know). To a large degree this is because the Russians haven't lost their construction expertise. The Russians didn't spend nearly as much time without building new reactors like a lot of Western nations. Also because of the failure at Chernobyl, for quite some time there was an impetus in Russia to repla

      • Actually both VVER and RBMK were developed at the same time, in the mid 1950ies. RBMK was based on a somewhat older reactor design from 1951, though. Still, they are basically the same age.

  • Finland will introduce legislation next year to phase out coal and increase carbon taxes

    This reminds me, how the Swiss city of Davos (yes, that Davos [nytimes.com]), contributes to the Global Warming/pollution/whatever fight: by banning gas stations... I can't find any references to the ban online to link here — you'll just have to visit it to see for yourself.

    Yep, the skiing is great, but to fill up your car, you'll have to drive to a neighboring town.

    • This reminds me, how the Swiss city of Davos (yes, that Davos [nytimes.com]), contributes to the Global Warming/pollution/whatever fight: by banning gas stations... I can't find any references to the ban online to link here — you'll just have to visit it to see for yourself.

      Everyone in Davos died when they exploded, after they decided to quit exhaling and quit farting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

      • by JustNiz ( 692889 )

        The Swiss are so straight-laced and such tight arseholes about everything, especially being green, that if you dare to drive 2 MPH over the ridiculously low speed limits that are all over Switzerland, you'll be instantly surrounded by cops and attack helicopters.
        I'm surprised they even still have word for farts.

  • by pubwvj ( 1045960 ) on Sunday September 03, 2017 @01:33PM (#55133389)

    This is really a protectionism measure. Finland has no domestic coal production. What they're doing is blocking energy imports to protect their domestic energy sector, what there is of it. Not a bad idea, but that is the truth.

    • by JustNiz ( 692889 )

      You're probably at least partially right. No matter how good it is, I doubt that any country that still gets a large amount of revenue from coal would make this move.

      Compared to all other forms of burning things to get power, coal is apparently by far the worst for emissions, so I still see this is a great positive move, regardless of the actual motives.

    • by Mjlner ( 609829 )

      This is really a protectionism measure. Finland has no domestic coal production. What they're doing is blocking energy imports to protect their domestic energy sector, what there is of it. Not a bad idea, but that is the truth.

      Yup, let's do this to protect our domestic (fill in the blank)-based energy production! We really need to use our vast, domestic supplies of (fill in the blank)!!!

      Any idea for the blank?!

      • Uranium and thorium are everywhere. If they are mining for anything then they have a source of uranium and thorium in the mining tails. Barring that they can extract uranium from seawater.
        https://www.forbes.com/sites/j... [forbes.com]

        I love how people say that "we" can do without coal and nuclear if only we put up enough windmills, solar panels, and connect them all with enough wires. That might work in a large nation and/or in a politically stable part of the world. What of the people that don't have a lot of sun a

        • We are "shackled" into all powergrids our neighbors have, including Russia. You can see the status of the Finnish power grid from here: http://www.fingrid.fi/fi/sahko... [fingrid.fi]

          Russians have been a good power supplier. Now when we get our new nukes online the only change will be that we will probably export electricity to Russia sometimes. Also Nordic pool electricity prices will go down for us, now Sweden and Norway have had lower prices due to insufficient grid capacity towards Finland. They are also going to fix

    • It's not economic protectionism. It's to prevent Russia from cutting off their energy supply in a crisis.

  • So a country of 5.5M is going to eliminate coal as 10% of its energy supply. Golf clap. In the meantime, OPEC member Nigeria is set to have its population hit 400M and be the 3rd largest in the world, jumping past Pakistan, Brazil, Indonesia and the US, by 2050. Ethiopia with 188M and the DR Congo with 195M are going to push Mexico and Russia out of the top-10 by 2050. By 2050 the ~1300M more people in Africa, and ~900M more in Asia will get most of their energy from... wait for it... fossil fuels! By
    • by Mjlner ( 609829 )

      So, you are saying that the environment is better off if smaller nations go 100% coal?

      (No, of course you ain't... I'm just being facetious.)

      Population size doesn't mean jack shit unless you account for the total consumption: energy consumption per capita in Finland is 20 times that of DR Congo, or 13 Times Pakistan, or 12 times Ethiopia, or 8 times Nigeria, or 7 times Indonesia, or 4 times Mexico (or somewhat less than the US).

      Yup, 5.5 million Finns consume energy more than 80 million Congolese. AND they wi

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