Finnish nuclear reactor starts up 12 years behind schedule

Finland's long-delayed Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor was started up on Tuesday, operator TVO said, marking the first entry into service of a nuclear plant in Europe for almost 15 years.

The EPR reactor, built by the French-led Areva-Siemens consortium on Finland's southwest coast, has been started up twelve years later than its initial scheduled completion date of 2009.

TVO called the startup "historical", as the first commissioning of a nuclear reactor in Finland for 40 years and the first in Europe since Romania's Cernavoda Unit 2 was brought online in 2007.

The plant will be connected to Finland's national grid in January with regular energy production expected in June 2022.

At 1,650 megawatts it will become Europe's most powerful reactor, supplying 14 percent of the Nordic country's energy.

The startup "reflects strong nuclear professionalism and a will to make Finland's greatest act for the climate a reality," TVO's senior vice president Marjo Mustonen said in a statement.

The French-developed EPR reactor model was designed to relaunch nuclear power after the Chernobyl catastrophe of 1986, and was touted as offering higher power and better safety.

But EPR builds in Finland, France and the UK have been plagued by delays and cost overruns.

Hinkley Point in southwest England is currently scheduled to begin electricity production in mid-2026, a decade later than first planned.

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