12
Product & Service Directory–2015
Building
Finland’s
Largest
Industrial
Project Ever
– Olkiluoto 3
By Virginie Moucquot-Laiho, AREVA.
Virginie Moucquot-
Laiho
Virginie Moucquot-Laiho is Olkiluoto 3
Project Communications Director and
head of Executive
Secretariat with
strong experience on
the project, which
she has worked
on since it started
in January 2005.
She also has deep
involvement at
the national level
as AREVA’s vice
country manager
and head of
communications
for Finland. She
graduated from
University of Paris V Descartes with a
degree in International Business.
“Welcome, take ticket” reads the
hastily translated sign at the local tax
office of Rauma, Finland, a peaceful town
of 35,000 inhabitants on the Finnish west
coast, in the heart of the Satakunta region.
Since 2005, when the Finnish electricity
company Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO)
began building a third nuclear unit on the
island of Olkiluoto in the neighboring
town of Eurajoki, the city of Rauma has
welcomed thousands of international
workers, coming from all over Europe to
take part in the largest industrial project
ever in Finland.
With more than 4,500 onsite workers
representing about 85 nationalities during
peak periods in 2009, when the primary
circuit installationbecame thekeyactivity,
the Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) region definitely
became amore intercultural environment.
AREVA (France), which is building
the plant with its consortium partner
Siemens (Germany,
Deutschland), has
employed directly
or indirectly tens of
thousands of local and
international workers
on the project.
For AREVA, in-
tegrating and support-
ing local industries
and communities is
key to building a proj-
ect. “We aim to be
very diverse in our
approach,” explained
Virginie Moucquot-
Laiho, communications director for the
project and AREVA in Finland. From the
basics – such as offering an international
education to its expatriates to supporting
the local ice hockey team – everything
is done to enable and to support cultural
diversity. Children in Rauma can attend
a school fully integrated with the French
system, but drawing inspiration from
the renowned Finnish education system,
mixing cultures and education principles.
A construction site is always a
financial boost and even more so in hard
times for the industry and services sector.
For the local government, expatriate
workers in theSatakunta region contribute
more than 20 million euros in taxes. For
Rauma, the collected tax in relation to the
project amounts to10millioneuros,which
is equivalent to 8 percent of the city’s tax
income.The unemployment rate today for
the municipality of Rauma is half of the
rate of 2004 and Eurajoki has the lowest
unemployment rate of Finland. The GDP
of the region has increased by 2.6 percent.
For local businesses and companies,
OL3 is a significant door opener,
creating new business opportunities.
From local bakeries striving to satisfy
their international customers tobusinesses
in all activities of construction, more
than 300 companies from the Satakunta
region alone are somehow connected
to the project. OL3 is a chance for the
regional and national nuclear supply
chain to increase their knowledge on an
internationally certified design.
In the past years, AREVA has
organized in many locations in Finland
dedicated nuclear Supplier Days, which
offer the opportunity to national and
local companies to discuss the needs and
requirements of nuclear qualification to
potentially participate in new nuclear
build projects in their country and
beyond. The latest opus brought together
representativesof theFinnishgovernment,
the Nuclear Safety Authority STUK and
Finnish associations of the sector, such
as the Federation of Finnish Technology
Industries. “AREVA is firmly committed
to capitalizing and expanding the number
of Finnish suppliers integrated in its
global supply chain for the future,” added
Moucquot-Laiho.
Developing strong partnerships with
other players in the nuclear field and in
the energy sector in the local market is
part of AREVA’s development strategy
and localization programs. The approach
is the same in both of the company’s
complementary businesses i.e. nuclear
and renewable energies. French and
Finnish energy policies both support a
balanced energymixbasedonnuclear and
renewables. Here, the strong international
presence of the AREVA Group and its
offerings in all low-carbon solutions
are aligned with this policy, support the
Finnish energy network and offer new
perspectives. Earlier in 2014, a business
community delegation from Satakunta
accompanied by AREVA Finland visited
the Group’s wind farm in Bremerhaven,
Germany, meetingwith key individuals to
