Mayor Vesa Lakaniemi: ONKALO is source of pride for Eurajoki

Eurajoki is known as the most electric municipality in Finland, with good cause. As much as 27.5 percent of the electricity demand of the whole of Finland was last year produced in this municipality of some 9,000 residents.

The name Eurajoki, a municipality in Satakunta region, is not necessarily familiar to every Finnish person, but almost everybody knows Olkiluoto. And nowadays the name is becoming known to ever more people also abroad.

– When I tell people about Eurajoki on my travels, I often start by describing Eurajoki as a nuclear power site hosting in practice the entire infrastructure of nuclear power from electricity production to the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. This is even on a global scale a unique entity that we can take pride in, Mayor Vesa Lakaniemi starts.

Lakaniemi has served as the Mayor of Eurajoki since February 2017. Educated and starting his career as a crafts teacher, he later held the post of a headmaster before moving on to the administrative side. He was elected as Mayor while working as the Director of Education Services for the City of Rauma.

In other words, next year he will have been ten years in Eurajoki, but his relationship with Olkiluoto is a lot older than that.

– As a student in the 1990s, I used to work in Olkiluoto in several summers in “transport”, as it was called then. That included all kinds of logistics services. My “contracts” kept getting longer every year, the last one being almost a whole year towards the end of my studies, Lakaniemi describes this relationship.

Significance of Olkiluoto spans whole of Satakunta

According to Lakaniemi, the significance of Olkiluoto to Eurajoki cannot be overstated. Teollisuuden Voima Group is not only an important source of tax revenue, but also by far the largest employer in the municipality.

– TVO and Posiva employ directly more than 1,100 people, and about 200 of them live in Eurajoki. Furthermore, the number of contractors’ personnel working in Olkiluoto is extremely considerable.

The impacts of the hub of nuclear power are reflected widely in the vitality of the whole of Satakunta region.

–In addition to Eurajoki, Olkiluoto is of great importance also to Rauma, Pori and the entire region, the Mayor points out.

Lakaniemi also highlights the meaning of the three plant units in Olkiluoto to the overall electricity production and security of supply in Finland. He considers the stability of electricity production a trump card for the region also in the future.

– Stable electricity production will further increase in significance as a factor attracting new industrial investments to Satakunta.

One question asked during every visit

The final disposal project of Posiva has brought Olkiluoto completely new kind of international attention. The progress of the world’s first geological final disposal solution for spent nuclear fuel has attracted interest literally all over the world.

This has been visible also in the Mayor’s own calendar.

– In 2026 alone, I have had visitors from Japan, South Korea, the United States and several European countries, Lakaniemi lists examples.

The international delegations are interested to learn why progress has been made specifically in Finland and Eurajoki in something for which many other countries are still looking for a solution.

One question is asked during almost every visit: how could Eurajoki approve the construction of a facility for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel in the municipality?

Lakaniemi says that the concise answer culminates in one word, which is trust.

Building blocks of trust

Decades of close and effective cooperation between the municipality, TVO and Posiva has been needed to build the trust.
– Achieving trust is a long process, but it can be lost very quickly. For us, it has been exceedingly important that both TVO and Posiva have kept their word and backed up their promises with real actions, Lakaniemi ponders.

He also stresses the importance of the long timespan. International visitors are often surprised by the decades long preparatory stage of the final disposal project.

– In many cases, it is only as we discuss the project that our visitors start to appreciate the length of the process. This is not something completed in just a few years. In Finland, preparations for the project have been ongoing since the 1980s, and the favourable stand of Eurajoki on the construction of the final disposal facility is part of the development that has continued for tens of years.

Lakaniemi lists high safety culture as well as open and transparent communication, in particular, as necessary building blocks for trust. He says he witnessed the former already during his summer jobs in Olkiluoto, whereas the significance of the latter has been highlighted in his current position.

– Effective cooperation is based on regular meetings and continuous communication. In my opinion, part of good communication is being aware of how things stand. Plus the possibility to address also difficult issues openly. Maintaining telephone contact should anything requiring urgent action take place, and keeping each other posted. And this is what we have done.

Eurajoki’s Mayor Vesa Lakaniemi has been familiar with Olkiluoto since the 1990s when he as a student spent many summers working there. In his current role, he gets to tell also foreign visitors about the unique nature of Olkiluoto and ONKALO ever more frequently.

Municipality could have also said no

The favourable stand of the municipality of Eurajoki was literally a requisite for Posiva’s final disposal project. Under the Finnish nuclear energy laws, the endorsement of the siting municipality was required before a decision-in-principle in favour of the project could be made. Had the municipal council opposed the project, the final disposal facility could not have been built in Eurajoki.

– The possibility of the municipality to also say no is an important part of the acceptability of the process as a whole. Open decision-making and local participation make all the difference in view of long-term cooperation.
Eurajoki gave the siting of the final disposal facility in Olkiluoto its decisive support already in the year 2000 when the municipal council voted in favour of the project with 20 for and 7 against. One year later, the Finnish Parliament also confirmed the Decision-in-Principle of the Government.

Lakaniemi reminds that trust or local acceptability cannot be achieved by a single decision or communication campaign.

-It is the sum total of many factors that combine safety culture, openness, local participation, and experience gained over several decades, he concludes.

ONKALO strengthens brand of Olkiluoto and Eurajoki

Lakaniemi feels that Posiva’s project supports awareness of Olkiluoto and strengthens the position of Eurajoki as a unique energy sector hub even on the global scene.

– ONKALO strengthens the brand of both Olkiluoto and Eurajoki significantly. Not only is electricity produced here, but spent nuclear fuel management is also implemented in a responsible manner. For me, it is important that we handle this entire process by ourselves, from start to finish.

Lakaniemi cites people and expertise specifically as the greatest strengths of Olkiluoto.

– Nuclear power and final disposal are topics that involve high-level science and technology. We have a huge number of top professionals here. For final disposal to be started here for the first time in the world is something absolutely wonderful, something we as a municipality can be really proud of, Lakaniemi sums up.