Finland's TVO hires Framatome for Olkiluoto 3 outage support

TVO, which operates the Olkiluoto plant's two boiling water reactors, was granted an operating licence by the Finnish government for OL3 in March last year, but fuel loading has been delayed until June this year because of slow progress of the system tests and problems with spare part deliveries.

The French company said its local presence, through its new subsidiary Framatome Finland Oy, capitalises on the skills and competencies developed during the OL3 project and consolidates the local supply chain.

"Our presence in Finland will allow us to effectively deliver these service contracts for the Olkiluoto 3 EPR and positions us to further support our utility partners in Finland and Sweden," said Catherine Cornand, senior executive vice president of Framatome’s Installed Base Business Unit. "Building on our global experience and expertise, the entire Framatome team looks forward to developing additional offerings for current and potential customers throughout Northern Europe."

The contracts, the value of which was not disclosed, cover nuclear plant outage and maintenance scopes, including engineering, I&C and non-destructive testing services over an extended period of time.

Framatome is contributing to the construction and commissioning of six EPRs: two at Taishan in China, one at Olkiluoto in Finland, one at Flamanville in France and two at Hinkley Point in the UK. In December 2018, unit 1 of the Taishan plant in China's Guangdong province became the first EPR to enter commercial operation, and Taishan 2 followed in September last year. The loading of fuel into the Flamanville EPR in France, construction of which began in December 2007, is now scheduled for the end of 2022.