Olkiluoto 3: progress update

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) announced today that commissioning of the Olkiluoto 3 EPR may be postponed until 2012.

Confronted with construction delays, the AREVA-Siemens consortium succeeded in convincing TVO that a number of measures were required to accelerate and improve the program. TVO will be chiefly responsible for implementing these measures.

The AREVA-Siemens consortium signed a turnkey contract with TVO under which the customer committed to validating documents sent by the consortium to the Finnish safety authority within two months, but in fact TVO is taking an average of nine months to do so.

The consortium has also started arbitration proceedings for a number of other contractual aspects.

The AREVA-Siemens consortium will update the construction schedule by the end of the year, depending on the progress made.

In parallel, manufacture of the primary components, the reactor vessel and the first steam generator has been completed; forging for the reactor coolant pipes has been validated, and AREVA representatives are on hand in the plants of the suppliers of more than 10,000 components to ensure that they are delivered as quickly as possible.

The consortium also points out that the Finnish safety authority, STUK, has publicized the good results of its inspections and expressed its satisfaction with the consortium's services concerning nuclear and occupational safety. These two aspects continue to be the consortium’s top priority.