After years of delay, an EPR nuclear reactor of Franco-German design was put into service on Sunday in Finland, making it possible to cover around 15% of electricity consumption there, announced its operator, the TVO group. Thirteen years behind schedule, the reactor should have started operating in December, but its activation had to be postponed several times during its experimental period.
“Testing is complete and regular power generation began today,” TVO said in a statement. “As of now, around 30% of Finnish electricity is produced in Olkiluoto,” he added. During the production test phase at the end of 2022, one of the three safety valves of the OL3 reactor in Olkiluoto, in the south-west of Finland, built by the French group Areva, was found to be defective.
The construction of the 1600 megawatt reactor began in 2005 and had, during the experiments, reached its full operational capacity for the first time in September. The Olkiluoto plant also has two older nuclear reactors.
According to TVO, the EPR supplied around 15% of Finland’s electricity during its experimental phase. Developed by France, this model of EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) was designed to revive nuclear power in Europe after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, being touted as offering higher power and better safety.
Its construction, however, represented a technical headache and not only in Finland. In France, the construction of the Flamanville EPR (north), started in 2007, was also affected by very long delays. Two reactors have been commissioned in China.