AREVA, who leads the EPR Team, submitted its commercial bid for the construction of a nuclear power plant at Pyhajoki, in North Ostrobothnia, Finland.

With this commercial bid, the EPR Team's offer is now completed, following submission of the technical bid earlier in January which is currently under evaluation by Fennovoima.

The plant supplier will be selected during 2012-2013. The schedule for the project as a whole will be defined during further negotiations.

The scope of the bid covers the engineering, procurement and construction of the complete nuclear power plant - including the reactor and the turbine.

AREVA, who will be in charge of the Nuclear Island, assembled a strong delivery team made up of world-class French and German partners who have already worked with AREVA on EPR projects for both, the Turbine Island and civil works.

"The Fennovoima project will benefit from the experience the EPR Team has already gained from the four EPRTM reactors currently under construction in Finland, France and China. Obviously, having an EPR reactor already licensed and under construction in Finland is a significant competitive advantage," said Peter Wappler, AREVA's Offer Director for Fennovoima project.

Fennovoima has already demonstrated its confidence in the EPR design by selecting AREVA in 2008 as one of the two plant supplier candidates. Since then, technical development work has been carried out.

This milestone is a clear sign that new build projects are moving forward worldwide, including in Europe where AREVA is involved in projects and tenders in the UK, Czech Republic, Poland and Finland, among others.