Olkiluoto 3 commercial operation delayed until 2014

Greenpeace estimates that very optimistically Olkiluoto 3 might start operating in 2014, five years late and 13 years after the parliamentary decision.

Helsingin Sanomat ran today a story that the start of the commercial operation of the Olkiluoto 3 plant will be delayed even further than 2012. Originally the plant was supposed to be up and running by 2009. The construction company Areva still claims to make it operational by 2012 but their Finnish customer TVO is no longer as positive. TVO project director Jouni Silvennoinen refuses to give his own estimation on the timetable. Silvennoinen says that "the plant should be quite ready in 2012". If Olkiluoto 3 is not completely ready in 2012, the start-up cannot take place before 2013 and even with Areva's extremely optimistic testing period of half a year, it won't be operational before the summer of 2013. Greenpeace estimates that very optimistically Olkiluoto 3 might start operating in 2014, five years late and 13 years after the parliamentary decision. However before even testing the plant can be started, Areva still needs to set up the reactor itself. The Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) has had to interfere in many previous construction phases and it's quite possible that the delay is even longer.