Nuclear: the Finnish EPR finally in service (twelve years late) – franceinfo

Finally, the start time. After years of delayed ignition, thehe EPR nuclear reactor in Olkiluoto in Finland started up for the first time on Tuesday, December 20, the plant operator announced. This reactor was to be commissioned initially in 2009. Built by the French group Areva, this reactor should start producing electricity at around 30% of its power in January, before normal commissioning in June, assures the Finnish energy company TVO in a press release.

“The timing of the start-up was historic. The last time a reactor was launched in Finland was over 40 years ago, and even in Europe it dates back about 15 years.”, underlines the operator of the plant, with reference to the launch of a reactor in Romania in 2007. At the end of this project launched in 2005 in the southwest of Finland, which has become for Areva a way of the cross undermined by delays and financial drifts, the Finnish EPR will become the most powerful reactor in operation in Europe.

Designed to revive nuclear energy after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, in particular thanks to a considerable concrete structure, the EPR encountered major construction problems, particularly in Finland and Flamanville in France. With a production capacity of 1,650 megawatts, it should supply around 15% of the Nordic country’s consumption.