Olkiluoto’s EPR will become the most powerful reactor in operation in Europe. It must provide about 15% of the consumption of the Nordic country.
Le Monde with AFP
After sixteen years of construction and twelve years behind the initial planned commissioning date, the EPR nuclear reactor built by French AREVA in Finland started this night for the first time, announced Tuesday, December 21, the operator of the plant.
After the first chain reaction at 03:22 local hour (02 h 22 hour of Paris) inside the reactor, the generation of electricity must begin at about 30% of the power when connecting to the network into January, before normal commissioning in June, told the Finnish Energetician TVO in a statement, greeting “the largest contribution of Finland for the climate”.
“The startup time has been historic. The last time a reactor was launched in Finland dates back more than forty years ago, and even in Europe this event goes back about fifteen years,” says the Operator of the Olkiluoto plant, with reference to the launch of a reactor in Romania in 2007.
At the end of this site launched in 2005 in southwestern Finland, which has become for AREVA a cross path undermined by delays and financial excesses, the OPR of Olkiluoto will become the most powerful reactor in operation in Europe. With a production capacity of 1,650 megawatts, it must provide about 15% of the consumption of the Nordic country.
Long live voltages
After loading the fuel in the reactor in March, the Finnish Nuclear Gendarme had authorized the reactor startup last week. Designed to revive nuclear energy after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, thanks to a considerable concrete structure and safety improvements, the EPR encountered significant construction problems, particularly in Finland, but also in Flamanville, France.
In Olkiluoto, these difficulties led to long and lively tensions between TVO, AREVA and the Nuclear Safety Authority and Finnish Radiation Protection, the Stuk. In March 2019, TVO had signed an agreement to end litigation, providing for a compensation of 450 million euros be paid. The COVID-19 had in turn provoking new delays on the Finnish site, on a site where two old reactors are already in operation.
Only two EPR reactors were so far in operation in the world, those of the Taishan power plant in China. Their construction had begun after Olkiluoto-3, the first nuclear reactor to have been ordered in the European Union since Chernobyl. The number 1 reactor of this plant located near Hongkong has been stopped since July after an incident, qualified as “current” by Beijing.
“Production of safe, reliable and low carbon electricity “
Launched in 1992, the EPR technology was co-developed by French AREVA and the Siemens German in their common subsidiary, of which Siemens has since removed. Designed to work for sixty years, the “European Pressurized Reactor” is based on pressurized water reactor technology, the most used in the world.
Financial set-up of the Finnish site, synonyms of billions of losses, provoked the complete reorganization of AREVA, whose main activities gave birth to Orano and Framatome (EDF subsidiary). Only remains AREVA SA, a structure whose essential purpose is to complete Olkiluoto-3.
“This step paves the way for the production of safe, reliable and low carbon electricity for the inhabitants of Finland,” welcomed the Managing Director of Framatome, Bernard Fontana, in a statement. If the problems of the EPR then the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011 slowed the hopes of a “rebirth”, nuclear energy sees its prospects improve again in the face of the climate crisis. Using uranium, nuclear electricity does not emit CO 2 during production and is globally a very low-carbon energy.
Sign of a more favorable conjuncture, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has taken up its projections for the first time since Fukushima, now providing for doubling of installed nuclear power by 2050 in the most favorable scenario.