nuclear-news

The continuing gloomy story of Finland’s Olkiluoto nuclear reactor

Nuclear dawn delayed in Finland BBC News, By Rob Broomby  8 July 2009  The turbine is the world’s largest and will generate about 2m horse power When it is finished, Finland’s 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor will be the biggest the world has ever seen, the excavation site alone is the size of 55 football fields.
It was to have been a pilot project for bigger, better, cleaner, Generation III reactors, which would lead the charge back to nuclear power in a continent which had gone cold on atomic energy after the accidents at Chernobyl and Thee Mile Island.
But hopes of an early nuclear dawn on the Baltic coast are fading – the May start up date came and went and the OL3 is now not expected to begin pumping out electricity until 2012 – three years later than planned and about $2.4bn dollars (1.7bn euros) over budget.
The soaring cranes tell the tale: this project is far from complete. There have been a string of problems starting with the concrete, then the welding.
Now, the safety regulator is questioning the designs for the reactor’s nerve centre – the Instrumentation and Control system. STUK – the Finnish safety regulator – has shown signs of irritation with the French company Areva who want to build many of Europe’s future reactors.
For Jukka Laaksonen, director general of STUK, getting the
instrumentation and control right is absolutely critical to the safety
of the plant.
He says the experts at Areva understand the problem but, “the
company’s management is not going along”…..
Even Philippe Knoche, Areva’s chief operating officer, admits things
have not been going well.
“It’s no secret that Areva is losing money on this project,” he tells me.
The two sides are now fighting over compensation for the delays……

In the worst case, the EPR could be struck-off the list of reactor
designs approved for use in the UK, a devastating blow to the French
company and the British nuclear programme……
They [the French]  have invested so much in the nuclear future they
are unlikely to walk away, but if the safety questions are not
adequately answered, the delays could occur yet again in both Britain
and Finland….. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8138869.stm

July 25, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Finland