Paris — Finnish Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) said in a statement on Wednesday that the long-delayed Olkiluoto 3 nuclear plant would start generating electricity in July 2020.
TVO said that the Areva-Siemens Consortium that is building the reactor had informed it that nuclear fuel will be loaded into the reactor in Jan. 2020, the first connection to the grid will take place in April 2020, and start of regular electricity production in July 2020.
The EPR reactor in western Finland is already more than a decade behind schedule and had been due to start producing electricity in January 2020.
A similar reactor under construction for French utility EDF in Flamanville, France is also years behind schedule and billions over budget due to a string of major technical problems, including weak spots in its steel and faulty weldings.
In Taishan, China the world’s first EPR reactor went into commercial operation in Dec. 2018 and the second one is expected to go into full operation in the fourth quarter of 2019.
EDF, which has a 30 percent stake in the Taishan reactors, is also building two EPR reactors in Hinkley Point, Britain.
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- Reuters
