Regular production at Olkiluoto 3 was delayed for several years due to legal and technical setbacks
The Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor in southwestern Finland has started electricity production, the head of the plant’s operator Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said in a statement on Sunday.
After a long test phase at the facility in Euraåminne, regular production was scheduled to start on Monday, but was instead launched at 2 a.m. on Sunday.
The 1.6 gigawatt OL3 is the most powerful nuclear reactor in Europe and the third largest in the world. According to TVO’s chairman Jarmo Tanhua, it is expected to be in operation for at least 60 years and meet around 14% of Finland’s electricity needs.
“The production of Olkiluoto 3 stabilizes the electricity price and plays an important role in the green transition in Finland,” noted Tanhua.
Construction of OL3 began back in 2005 and it was supposed to start producing electricity in 2009, but setbacks in the design work and a series of legal disputes resulted in a 14-year delay to the launch. The reactor was connected to Finland’s national grid last March and started test production, but several technical breakdowns forced TVO to postpone the transition to normal operation several times.
OL3 is the third reactor at Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. The first two units, OL1 and OL2, were commissioned in 1978 and 1980, respectively. In 2021, the Olkiluoto plant produced 14.4 terawatt hours of electricity, about one sixth of Finland’s total electricity consumption.
The newly completed reactor is expected to help Finland reduce its dependence on power imports from Sweden and Norway, and make up for supplies lost after Russia halted power exports to the country last May, when Russian company Inter RAO stopped receiving payments for sales electricity to Finland via the pan-European stock exchange Nord Pool.
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(RT.com)
Source: sn.dk