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TVO Receives Second ‘Final And Binding Partial Award’ For Olkiluoto-3 EPR Claim

By David Dalton
20 July 2017

TVO Receives Second ‘Final And Binding Partial Award’ For Olkiluoto-3 EPR Claim
The Olkiluoto-3 EPR under construction in Finland. Photo courtesy Hanna Huovila / TVO.

20 Jul (NucNet): Finland’s Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) has received a second final and binding partial award in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration proceeding related to delays and costs at the Olkiluoto-3 EPR nuclear power project, the company said in a statement on 20 July 2017. In the partial award the ICC tribunal has addressed the preparation, review, submittal, and approval of design and licensing documents for the project. These documents include the “key facts and matters” that the supplier, an Areva-Siemens consortium, cited in its main claim against TVO, as well as issues that TVO cited in its claims against the supplier. The partial award resolved “the great majority of these facts and matters in favour of TVO”, the statement said. “Conversely, it has also rejected the great majority of the supplier’s contentions in this regard.” The partial award does not take any position on a financial settlement, but according to TVO it has “conclusively rejected” the method used by Areva-Siemens to support its principal financial claims against TVO. A previous partial award, which addressed the early period of the project in relation to schedule, licensing and system design, was granted in November 2016 and was also favourable to TVO. The company said arbitration proceedings are continuing with at least one further partial award to come, before the final award for which the tribunal will decide on compensation. The Olkiluoto-3 EPR was procured from Areva-Siemens as a fixed-price turnkey project. According to the current Areva-Siemens schedule, regular electricity production from the unit will begin at the end of 2018, nine years behind schedule. In October 2014, the Areva-Siemens consortium building the unit increased an arbitration claim against TVO to €3.5bn ($4bn) for cost overruns on the project. TVO’s counterclaim for delays is for €2.3bn.

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