Turbine work delays Olkiluoto 3 start up

In May, TVO reached a consensus with the plant supplier - the Areva GmbH, Areva NP SAS and Siemens AG consortium - regarding the terms of the Olkiluoto 3 project completion. At that time, it said the OL3 plant was scheduled to be connected to the grid in October this year and to begin regular electricity production in February 2022.

In a 30 July statement, TVO said it had been informed by the Areva-Siemens consortium that the start-up of the plant had been postponed by one month. The reactor will now be grid connected in November and regular electricity production will begin in March 2022.

The Areva-Siemens AG 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.

Fuel has now been loaded into the core of Olkiluoto 3. The reactor is now in a commissioning phase lasting several months during which time TVO will conduct a new series of hot functional tests to verify the plant's systems work correctly. Initial hot functional tests- carried out without nuclear fuel in the reactor - were completed in 2018.

"The hot functional test phase has been ongoing at Olkiluoto 3," TVO said. "This is the final major set of tests before first criticality and the start of electricity production. The hot functional tests have proceeded well but after receiving the test results it has been decided to conduct some overhaul and inspection works for the turbine."