Alex, our Energy [R]evolution specialist, reports on the action happening now in Finland:

The crisp and cold early mornings have begun; for those of us in the Northern hemisphere this signals two inevitable events: shorter days and the annual onslaught of Christmas Kitsch. However I am not ashamed to admit that this year not only would I like there to be a Santa but also for Christmas to come early.

I was not the only one up braving the cold today – my colleagues in Finland were also up braving the dawn cold to send a message to not only their government, but hopefully to many more around the world that power stations fueled by nuclear and coal not only fail to provide energy security but are also killing the planet.

I can only hope that Santa and his little helpers up in the North of the country take time to log on to their toxic free smart phones and check twitter during a hot choc break today to check out what is happening at the Meri Pori power station.

>>Check out images on the Greenpeace Finland Flickr site
>>Follow the action on Twitter

So what’s the story? Greenpeace is taking action today to expose the climate bluff of the nuclear industry presenting itself as part of the solution to global warming. The Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant in Finland, approved in 2003, was supposed to help close down dirty coal and peat fired power plants, helping the country meet its Kyoto emissions targets. But the power companies behind this plan, far from cutting down on the use of dirty fuels, are building new polluting power stations.

Two largest nuclear companies in Finland, PVO and Fortum, plan to build a total of eight predominantly fossil-fuel fired power plants that would spew out a total of four million tons of carbon dioxide yearly, equivalent to each car owner in Finland driving 25 km more each day. Despite enormous remaining potential for renewable energy, only a fourth of investments in new generating capacity go into renewables, far less
than the EU average.

To rub extra salt into the wound – the initial estimation for building the new reactor was 2.5 billion Euros – has now more than doubled to 5.5 billion Euros, is three years behing schedule and over two thousand technical problem were identified by country’s inspectors ; money that should have been spent on renewable energy.

So maybe Santa could do us and the Finnish nation a favour and hop on his carbon neutral slay – get down to Meri Pori – sprinkle some magic dust and convert this CO_2 spewing monster into a wind farm. In fact if he was feeling extra generous he may want to bring Christmas early and get down to Copenhagen at the beginning of December and deliver us a FAB (fair, ambitious and binding) deal during the Climate Summit.