6 Jan (NucNet): Finland’s nuclear operators have released production figures for 2013, with Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) saying the two-unit Olkiluoto nuclear power station produced a record 14.63 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity despite unplanned outages.
TVO said the figure exceeds the previous record of 14.5 TWh in 2009. The combined load factor of the 880-megawatt boiling water reactor units was 95.1 percent.
Fortum’s two-unit Loviisa nuclear power station produced a total of 8.04 TWh, approximately nine per cent of the country’s total electricity production. The load factor was 92.5 percent with Loviisa 1’s load factor 92.1 percent and Loviisa 2’s 93 percent. Both Loviisa units are 420-MW pressurised water reactors.
Fortum said “several significant investment projects” are under way at Loviisa to ensure electricity production until the end of the units’ operation permits in 2027 and 2030.
Renewal of turbines and reheaters will increase production capacity by 29 megawatts, a spokesman said. In 2014, a cooling system that is independent of seawater will be constructed, which will improve the safety of the power plant in extreme conditions.
Finland has four nuclear units in commercial operation and one, the Olkiluoto-3 EPR, under construction.
Last month, Fennovoima of Finland and Rusatom Overseas, a subsidiary of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, signed the plant supply contract for the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear power plant that is to be constructed in Pyhäjoki, western Finland.
