Tomi Routamo appointed as the Deputy Director for New Nuclear Power Plant regulation

M.Sc. (Physical Engineering) Tomi Routamo (54) has been appointed as the Deputy Director for New Nuclear Power Plant regulation, Nuclear Reactor Regulation Department, at the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) as of 1 June.

As the Deputy Director for New Nuclear Power Plant's regulation, Tomi Routamo's task is to ensure that STUK has sufficient expertise in case it must carry out a safety assessment for a new nuclear power plant or a new type of a plant. Since 2014, Tomi Routamo has been the Deputy Director for Operating Nuclear Power Plants at STUK.

Tapani Virolainen, Director of the Nuclear Reactor Regulation Department, says that STUK must be prepared for the fact that already in the near future someone will apply for a licence for the construction of new nuclear power plants. “We cannot predict the future, but there is serious interest in so-called small modular reactors,” says Tapani Virolainen.

“Preparing for the arrival of new nuclear power plant projects is a meaningful and challenging task,” says Tomi Routamo. He emphasizes that the regulatory authority must be well aware of the safety issues related to the monitored nuclear power plants, so that the supervision is properly targeted at both the technology and operations in accordance with their safety significance.

There are currently several different types of small modular reactor projects under development in the world. According to Tomi Routamo, it is not possible for STUK to study all of these in detail, but STUK must identify their common features and which of them are of interest to Finnish operators. In addition to small modular reactors, there must also be capabilities to evaluate larger plants if they are to be built in Finland.

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