Finnish electricity producer Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) submitted on Friday an application to build a new nuclear reactor in Olkiluoto, in southwestern Finland, the ministry of employment and the economy said.
The reactor would be Finland's sixth.
The ministry said the environmental assessment process for the project was continuing and was expected to be finished in mid-June.
"We will start preparing to handle the application this spring," Economy Minister Mauri Pekkarinen said in a statement.
In addition to TVO, utility Fortum and Fennovoima are planning new nuclear reactors and are expected to send their applications to the ministry. It is unclear could the government and the parliament give their permission to more than one project.
In Olkiluoto, the Nordic country's fifth nuclear reactor, the world's first pressurised water reactor Olkiluoto 3, is currently being built by an Areva-Siemens consortium.
That project has run into major delays and is forecast to start producing electricity in 2011.
