Nearly 20 years after construction began, Finland’s 1,600-MW Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant could be in limited service early next year. The plant, a French-designed advanced pressurized water reactor has seen a world of troubles throughout its lengthy construction period, plagued by design issues and construction delays by the French-German Areva-Siemens consortium.
Construction began in 2005, with a projected completing date in 2009.
World Nuclear News reported this week that the Finnish utility TVO has cleared the plant for criticality, startup testing, and possible 30% power in January. Full power production could begin in June.
WNN reported, “The Areva-Siemens consortium is constructing the OL3 plant under a fixed-price turnkey contract. They have joint liability for the contractual obligations until the end of the guarantee period of the unit. Construction of Olkiluoto 3 began in 2005. Completion of the reactor was originally scheduled for 2009, but the project has had various delays and setbacks.”
That suggests that Areva and Siemens are taking a financial bath on the project, although the damage is not known at this point. The French government owns over half of Areva, which means the government may have to bail out Areva. Reuters reported that the troubled project pushed “TVO into a lengthy legal battle over compensation with the plant’s builders, France’s Areva and Germany’s Siemens SIEGn.DE.”
If the plant goes into full service, it could supply 14% of Finland’s electric generating capacity. Finland’s Energy Authority says the country had 17.6 GW of installed generating capacity in 2020.
–Kennedy Maize
(kenmaize @gmail.com)