The beginning of power manufacturing at Finland’s long-delayed Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor has been postponed from September to December as a consequence of restore work, operator TVO mentioned Wednesday.
The French-developed European Pressurised Reactor mannequin was designed to relaunch nuclear energy in Europe after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and was touted as providing larger energy and higher security.
However EPR tasks in Finland, France and the UK have been tormented by delays and price overruns.
The reactor constructed by the French-led Areva-Siemens consortium on Finland’s southwest coast went on-line in March, 12 years delayed.
Vitality manufacturing had been anticipated to begin this summer time, with the purpose of supplying about 15 p.c of Finland’s electrical energy consumption.
As not too long ago as April, the operator Teollisuuden Voima pushed again the beginning of power manufacturing from July to September, as a consequence of repairs wanted on the cooling system.
On Wednesday, TVO mentioned take a look at manufacturing had once more been delayed after “international materials” was noticed within the turbine’s steam reheater.
“International materials indifferent from the steam information plates was discovered within the turbine’s steam reheater in Could 2022, which requires inspection and restore work”, TVO mentioned in a press release.
The restore work will final till the tip of July, it mentioned.
The take a look at manufacturing programme and electrical energy manufacturing can solely be continued after the repairs are accomplished.
“In response to info acquired from the plant provider, OL3 EPR’s common electrical energy manufacturing is to begin in December 2022, as a substitute of the beforehand introduced begin in September 2022”, it mentioned.
