TVO shows commitment to Olkiluoto 3

Friday, 14 June 2013

The shareholders of Finland's Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) have agreed to €300 million ($400 million) of loan commitments to enable the company to realise the completion of the Olkiluoto 3 EPR project.

Olkiluoto 3 (Image: TVO)

The commitments and related agreements were signed at an extraordinary general meeting of the company that followed a proposal made by its board of directors in February. The new commitments are intended to enable TVO to "maintain a sufficient level of equity for the Olkiluoto 3 project, cope with possible additional delays and possible additional costs in the finalization of the project," according to a company statement.

Olkiluoto 3 is the first-of-a-kind EPR plant and is being constructed by an Areva-Siemens consortium under a fixed-price turnkey contract. When construction began in 2005 a startup in 2009 was envisaged; however, the project has been beset by a mix of delays which have seen the startup date pushed back. TVO says it is "prepared for the possibility" that the plant may not now start regular electricity production until 2016.

Pointing to the unit's status as the reference for "a new kind of nuclear power plant," TVO president and CEO Jarmo Tanhua called for the consortium to strive for its completion. "It is extremely important now that the plant supplier Areva-Siemens consortium allocates all of its vigour and capabilities to the project to get Olkiluoto 3 to electricity production as soon as possible," he said.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News