TVO is committed to observing the principles of sustainable development, and environmental responsibility is a part of the Company’s management system. The Company’s environmental management system meets the requirements of the international ISO 14001 standard and the energy efficiency system. The system is EMAS registered, and its goal is continuous improvement and raising the level of environmental protection.
TVO recognizes the environmental and energy aspects of its operations and works to minimize their negative impacts at all stages of the electricity production chain. TVO constantly monitors the environmental impacts of its operations.
The Company’s operations met the requirements set in legislation, environmental permits and the environmental management system in 2018. The most significant environmental impact of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant are the production of climate friendly electricity and the local warming of the sea water near the plant. During the year under review, the temperature of cooling water remained within the limits required by the environmental permit. The environmental load caused by the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant was minimal. Radioactive emissions into the atmosphere and water were below regulatory limits.
Operations were developed in accordance with the regulations of environmental permits and the environmental management system. In accordance with the principle of continuous improvement, the environmental management system sets goals for the Company’s operations. The system is regularly monitored by an environmental team consisting of experts from various fields. TVO is also involved in the energy efficiency agreement. The Company’s total energy savings target for the agreement period 2017–2025 is 150 GWh.
In 2018 one environmental incident occured in Olkiluoto. In the incident oil was leaked on the soil from a construction vehicle. As result, 5 m3 of contaminated soil material was cleaned in the incident area. In addition, an incident happened during the construction works of OL1 was detected. In total 250 tons of contaminated soil material was removed from the zone under supervision of a third party operator. Five minor environmental incidents occurred in Olkiluoto during 2018.
In the beginning of 2019 TVO detected that the gathering efficiency of exhaustion pipe’s sampling system of aerosol emissions had not been taken into account in the emission report of OL1 and OL2 plant units during their usage history. For this reason, the results of reported aerosol emissions will be specified later. The effect of aerosol releases to the calculated annual environmental dose is insignificantly small.
Risks related to the environment have been recognized and no significant risks influencing operations were detected in risk analysis. Risk management is used to predict any non-conformances and prevent their consequences, which may be hazardous to the environment. The power plant’s emergency preparedness plan was updated in 2018.
In December 2016, The Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland issued decisions on the adjustment of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant’s environmental permit and water permit regulations. Environmental permit and water permit decisions were made on power plant’s functions and backup energy production. Vaasa Supreme administrative Court gave its decision in June 19 and it came into force in July 2018.
Environmental issues from 2018 and key figures related to the environment as well as the results of the environmental program are reported in further detail in the corporate social responsibility and environmental reporting on the TVO website at http://vuosikertomus.tvo.fi/annualreport2018. The information has been verified by an external party.
