Annual outages progress at Olkiluoto plant units – maintenance starts at Olkiluoto 2 on Sunday

The annual outage at Olkiluoto 3 will continue for another week or so. During the upcoming weekend, the annual outage will start also at the Olkiluoto 2 plant unit (OL2) as planned. OL2 will be disconnected from electricity production on Sunday 28 April for a refuelling outage which will take a good week. At Olkiluoto 1 (OL1), the service outage, which will last for about 15 days, starts on 12 May.

The consistently good condition of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant and the as uninterrupted production as possible are ensured through annual outages carried out at regular intervals. At the OL1 and OL2 plant units, refuelling outages and service outages take place on alternate years. After the first years of operation, annual outages can at Olkiluoto 3 be implemented also at intervals of 18 or 24 months.

The planned duration of the refuelling outage at OL2 is eight days. In addition to the actual refuelling, various yearly repeated preventive maintenance activities, inspections, fault repairs and tests are to be carried out at OL2. OL2 is expected to be restored to electricity production on 6 May.

For OL1, the service outage starts on 12 May and is estimated to take a good 15 days. Major work activities to be implemented during the service outage include, for example, the maintenance of the main transformer and the generator switch, the replacement of the control rod drive mechanisms as well as the servicing of the feedwater and condensate pumps and two main circulation pumps. Electrical feedthrough modules and reactor automation will also be replaced at the plant unit. Refuelling is also always included in the service outage, and thus carried out every year at the plant units. The annual outage of OL1 is planned to be completed by 28 May.

In addition to TVO's own personnel, this year about 1,000 subcontractor employees take part in the annual outage works at OL2 and OL1. About 150 foreign experts in special fields partake in the annual outages.

At all of the Olkiluoto plant units, the annual slogan for the outages is this year “Safe production through teamwork”. Plant Manager Nina Paaso thinks it is very apt.

-Seamless cooperation and continuous communication are the be-all and end-all when carrying out maintenance on this scale.  This guarantees safe operating cycles without disruptions, Ms. Paaso says.

The schedules of the Olkiluoto annual outages can be found on the front page of the website at www.tvo.fi.  Read more about the annual outages at https://www.tvo.fi/en/index/production/plantunits/annualoutagesandmodernizations.html.
 

Teollisuuden Voima Oyj has produced electricity for its shareholders, Finnish industrial and energy companies, safely and reliably for over 40 years. The island of Olkiluoto produces about 30 percent of Finland's electricity needs. Climate-friendly nuclear electricity not only benefits society but also reduces the environmental impact of energy production. Moreover, the world's first final disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel is under construction in Olkiluoto.