Finland's Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor, which has suffered significant delays, has started producing electricity at full power and regular operation is expected to begin in December, operator TVO and the French group Areva announced on Friday.
"
The reactor is now the most powerful electricity production facility in Europe
," welcomed the Finnish operator of the plant in a press release.
With a power level of around 1,600 megawatts, the plant, located on the southwest coast of the Nordic country, has also become the third most powerful power generation facility in the world, the company said.
Just behind the two Chinese EPRs, also of French design.
The largest nuclear power plant in Europe is located in Zaporijjia in Ukraine, with six 1000 megawatt reactors.
TVO had indicated at the beginning of September that the full power of almost 1600 megawatts should be reached "at
the beginning of October
".
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The new OL3 reactor is being closely watched in Finland, where it is hoped that it can meet the energy challenges of the coming winter in the face of the risks of shortages aggravated by the fall in Russian gas deliveries to Europe and electricity to Finland.
When the EPR is at full power, 40% of Finland's electricity production now comes from Olkiluoto, with the existing OL1 and OL2 reactors together producing around 21% and OL3 alone around 19%.
The new reactor, built by the Franco-German consortium Areva-Siemens, started in March, 12 years late and a long series of failures and setbacks which partly explained Areva's heavy restructuring.
Regular production was due to start this summer, but was postponed until December after "
foreign material
" was observed in the turbine's steam burner.
TVO said the remaining ten rounds of testing will impact power levels in the coming months.
“
In some of the upcoming tests, production from the generating unit is intentionally interrupted or the power level is lowered
,” the company said.
"
Teams from Areva, Siemens and TVO remain fully mobilized to complete the long phase of testing at 100% power
," said Areva for its part.
The European model EPR pressurized reactor was designed to revive nuclear power in Europe after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and was touted as offering higher power and better safety.
In addition to its delays in Finland, the reactor site in France, in Flamanville (north-west) is also suffering from numerous delays and additional costs.
The current energy crisis in Europe and the drop in Russian gas deliveries are, however, boosting the prospects for the nuclear industry on the Old Continent.