Finland has commissioned its French-designed EPR reactor, after 18 years of work

It was one of the sites emblematic of the difficulties of the EPR, this new generation nuclear reactor designed by France. The Olkiluoto 3 reactor in Finland was put into commercial service on Sunday 16 April. It is now fully operational, announces its operator TVO.

This reactor is the third EPR to enter service in the world, the other two being located in China. It becomes the most powerful reactor in operation in Europe. The plant, located on the southwest coast of Finland, which has three reactors in total, produces 30% of the country’s electricity. This EPR had already been started in December 2021, but had been in the test phase for several months before its actual entry into service.

Huge overhead

It is the end of a major project started in 2005 and led by the German group Siemens and the French group Areva. The enormous additional costs were one of the main causes of the industrial dismantling of Areva, weighed down by losses of several billion euros. A structure remains, whose main task is to complete the Olkiluoto site, but most of the group has passed into the hands of EDF.

In France, the construction of the Flamanville EPR, which began in 2007, was also affected by massive delays, due in particular to anomalies in the steel cover and the reactor vessel. Emmanuel Macron wishes to launch the construction of six other second-generation EPRs in France. This technology has also been chosen for a two-reactor plant at Hinkley Point, in the south-west of England. Electricity production is currently planned for mid-2027, instead of 2025 initially.