EON Withdraws From Finnish Nuclear Project on Price Slide

EON AG, Germany’s biggest utility, plans to withdraw from the Fennovoima Oy nuclear reactor in Finland after European energy prices declined, threatening the viability of the project.

Fennovoima, in which EON owns a 34 percent stake, plans to begin construction of a 1,600 to 1,800-megawatt reactor at Pyhaejoki in northern Finland in late 2016, Timo Kallio, executive vice president of construction, said today in an interview in Tampere, Finland. EON, the sole provider of nuclear expertise to the project, will exit the venture in the first quarter, Roger Strandahl, a spokesman for EON in Malmoe, Sweden, said today by telephone.