After 18 Years, Europe’s Largest Nuclear Reactor Starts Regular Output

Finland finally began regular output Sunday from its first new nuclear power plant in more than four decades. Reuters reports that the Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor is also Europe’s first new nuclear plant in 16 years. Construction started in 2005, with the plant due to open four years later — but it was then “plagued by technical issues” which continued to the very end. OL3 first supplied test production to Finland’s national power grid in March last year and was expected at the time to begin regular output four months later, but instead suffered a string of breakdowns and outages that took months to fix. The reactor will be Europe’s largest, the article points out: OL3’s operator Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), which is owned by Finnish utility Fortum and a consortium of energy and industrial companies, has said the unit is expected to meet around 14% of Finland’s electricity demand, reducing the need for imports from Sweden and Norway. The new reactor is expected to produce for at least 60 years, TVO said in a statement on Sunday after completing the transition from testing to regular output. “The production of Olkiluoto 3 stabilises the price of electricity and plays an important role in the Finnish green transition,” TVO Chief Executive Jarmo Tanhua said in the statement. “News of OL3’s start-up comes as Germany on Saturday switches off its last three remaining reactors, while Sweden, France, Britain and others plan new developments.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.