History

Platom was founded in 1998, but in reality its roots go much further back in time. Platom’s founding father, Kalevi Puukko, has been involved in the nuclear industry since the beginning of his career. Initially he worked in Sweden and later on the construction site of Loviisa NPP in Finland. The engineering company Rejlers, which conducted pipeline design and other design work for NPPs, was born in the early 1980’s.

Something disastrous happened on April 26th, 1986. The Chernobyl nuclear accident is still the most severe nuclear accident, and it was caused by serious flaws in plant design, operation and regulation. Due to the Chernobyl accident, Rejlers began looking for alternative business directions, which eventually helped the company survive the brutality of the early 1990’s depression. Mr. Puukko could not personally abandon the nuclear industry, so in 1998 he left Rejlers and founded Platom.

Kalevi has always been interested in doing things properly. In the nuclear industry, one must always be absolutely certain of what one is doing, as there is no room for errors. Kalevi was also intrigued by the idea that there are no ready-made solutions. The solutions had to be coaxed out and this is what Platom is still all about.

For a small engineering company, the early days were not easy. Everything was started off a clean slate. Gaining an entry into the market was challenging, as the utilities employed very strong technical expertise in-house. For the first few years, Platom operated only on the Swedish market, until in the first decade of the 21st century Finnish market finally opened up. There have been many challenges along the way, but also a development of high level expertise for example in the field of nuclear fuel handling. While there are not always guarantees for success when developing new solutions, through courage and innovation we have acquired the deeper expertise required by the nuclear industry.

In the early 2010’s a major change happened when Kalevi’s son Miika succeeded his father in the management and ownership of Platom. Miika brought new ideas and a new kind of courage, which have proven invaluable for the growth of the company. Platom’s key strength has since its foundation been in its employees. It is imperative that each employee feels that Platom is a place where one’s work is valuable and that one is treated accordingly.

Today Platom is called upon to solve some of the most challenging aspects of the nuclear industry. We have grown to become a team of international experts specialized in identifying, understanding and ensuring the compliance of nuclear requirements in all our projects and services. We are motivated by doing our part in providing the society with carbon free.

While the early years were not easy, we find that still our journey is only beginning. Finnish stubbornness and determination has carried us through the most difficult times and brought us to where we are today. We strive to solve even the seemingly impossible challenges of the industry. In doing so, we create peace of mind both for our customers and the coming generations.