Yet another delay has been announced in the construction schedule of the Olkiluoto III nuclear reactor.
The installation was originally supposed to be up and running in 2009, but the date has been pushed back numerous times.
The reason for the latest delay was problems in the planned automation system.
Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) announced on Wednesday that the third reactor at the Olkiluoto site - the fifth commercial nuclear reactor in Finland - will not be ready to go onstream and generate electricity until 2014.
According to Jouni Silvennoinen, the head of the project, TVO has demanded compensation from the builder Areva-Siemens amounting to more than a billion euros.
The Finnish construction industry journalRakennuslehti has previously noted that the German company has reported in connection with the publication of its results that TVO has previously said that it is entitled to compensation worth EUR 2.4 billion from the Siemens-Areva consortium.
Meanwhile, the consortium says in turn that it is owed about a billion euros by TVO.
TVO has informed the Nordic Electricity Exchange that electricity from the third unit of Olkiluoto would not be on the market in 2013.
According to Silvennoinen, the delay will not cause any electricity shortages in Finland.
Finland is an importer of electricity, and the purpose of Olkiluoto III will be to replace electricity imports and coal-fired power plants.
The new reactor was ordered on a turnkey basis, and the builder is responsible for keeping to the schedule.
The investment costs of the 1,600 MWe plant were originally estimated at EUR 3.5 billion.
“Time has passed and money has been spent”, Silvennoinen says.
Ten billion?
“No comment.”
