14 Apr (NucNet): Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) has submitted the operating licence application for the Olkiluoto-3 EPR to the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy (MEE), TVO said in a statement.
TVO expects to receive the licence by the end of 2017, the statement said.
Once the operating licence is awarded, the nuclear station commissioning phase will begin, with eventual regular electricity generation scheduled to start by the end of 2018, TVO said.
The Olkiluoto-3 project is now moving into its testing phase, Jouni Silvennoinen, TVO’s senior vice-president responsible for the project, said.
He also said the operating licence application process is an “important milestone step” towards commissioning.
Process-system tests started at Olkiluoto-3 earlier in April this year. An Areva-Siemens consortium is building the 1,600-megawatt EPR at Olkiluoto-3 for TVO.
When the power station becomes operational in 2018, it will be nine years behind schedule. Commercial operation was originally scheduled for April 2009.
The full English version of the application is available on TVO’s web site: http://bit.ly/1VnhC7i
