Nuclear Heroes goes blogging: NNTP module 3 – Building bonds and knowledge
The NNTP trainees got to start 2025 with excitement in the air as our third module was fast approaching. The venue would be the Olkiluoto 3 Nuclear Power Plant and visitor center. I have personally never gone to Olkiluoto, or Rauma for that matter. The expectations were very much primed by the few trainees who have worked at Olkiluoto before and by TVO’s trainees.
A bunch of us at Espoo HQ decided to car pool together and consequently listen to an online event announcing the Fortum Way, new summation of our work values. The specific values are aim high; with care; win together. We discussed these values within the Fortum’s group as well as with trainees from TVO, Vattenfall and Uniper during our free time. One could argue that the values were already quite integrated in the trainees and the module.
Aim High: The presentations and the conversations that they sparked spoke of the high standard and passion we all share, from the trainees to such speakers as Jarmo Tanhua, TVO’s CEO, and Juhani Hyvärinen, Professor at LUT University, among many. The theme of this module revolved a lot around new build nuclear and how to handle large scale projects, both topics that speak of the confidence that the industry veterans have in the future of nuclear.
With care: Each module helps realise that getting life-long friends from the Program was not just advertisement. Our team of trainees gets more tightly knit with every presentation, dinner and free time activity. This time for example, we got to test the bonds we’ve been building in escape rooms our host had arranged.
Win together: Solving the escape room puzzles definitely were a team effort, as was the successful third module too. One endeavour that was particularly impressive was a plant tour of Olkiluoto 3. We got to see the Reactor Building and the massive Turbine Hall. Almost as impressive as the plant was the visitor center itself, which could be described as a nuclear themed Heureka, a science museum.
Consensus among the trainees was that the discussion topics are getting increasingly interesting as they are getting more in depth. Commitment to the program has definitely been cemented, as we were already getting excited for the next module during our stay at Rauma. Besides obviously looking forward to the next module, I also wait for our next visit to Olkiluoto in the fall, as we get to see and learn about the spent nuclear fuel repository Onkalo.
Signing off,
Aleksi Toivanen
NNTP 24-25
Design Engineer
Engineering & Projects