Power utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) is pushing ahead with plans to build a fourth nuclear reactor at Olkiluoto despite disastrous delays in its ongoing Olkiluoto 3 project.
The company says preparations for the next unit are continuing regardless of Tuesday’s request for an extension of its permit to build a fourth nuclear reactor at the site.
In effect, the postponement of the project means that construction near Pori would not begin until sometime in the 2020s. It would not begin producing electricity until late in that century.
Time running out on permit
TVO has reduced the staff working its OL4 project to around 20 people. However the delay has so far not led to redundancies. The firm is to begin discussing a new timetable with its suppliers.
The utility was granted permission to build the fourth unit many years ago. However the cash-strapped company has been unable to move forward with OL4 due to massive delays and cost overruns in its predecessor, OL3.
“It’s impossible to make such a large investment decision in this situation,” TVO’s CEO Jarmo Tanhua told Yle. “We cannot simultaneously run two projects costing billions of euros.”
”The current decision-in-principle is in effect until the end of June 2015 and it’s becoming clear that we won’t be ready to make the investment decision by then,” he added.
The third unit was to have been ready by 2009 but still remains far from completion.
Cabinet to decide on 2 reactors
The government is expected to reconsider the fourth unit's permit next autumn – perhaps in tandem with a revised permit application for a new nuclear power plant in northern Finland. If approved, that facility would be built by the Fennovoima consortium and the Russian state-owned power company Rosatom.
Both decisions will apparently need the approval of both the government and Parliament. Approval of one or both reactor could well lead to the Green League quitting the government coalition, as they did in 2002 over the OL3 decision.
Greens chair and Environment Minister Ville Niinistö says the government should deny TVO’s extension request, telling Yle that the nuclear projects’ problems had turned into a “farce”. He said they demonstrate that nuclear power is not financially viable in Finland, adding that there is no provision under current law for such an extension.
