Skip to content

More Problems For EPR As Finland Cancel Plans For Second Reactor

July 30, 2015
tags:

By Paul Homewood 

 

h/t Oldbrew    

 

image

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2859924/finland_cancels_olkiluoto_4_nuclear_reactor_is_the_epr_finished.html

 

The plan to build an EPR reactor at Hinkley Point looks further away than ever, as Finland abandons plans to build a second one, with the first one running 9 years late amidst huge budget overruns.

From the Ecologist:

 

There’s been plenty of bad news recently for the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) nuclear power station design.

And now there’s more. The Finnish electricity company TVO announced this week that it had cancelled plans to build a second EPR at Olkiluoto in western Finland because of delays and problems with the first EPR on the site currently being built by Areva and Siemens.

That plant, Olkiluoto 3, is running severely over time and budget. Construction began in 2005 and it is not expected to commence operating until 2018, nine years late.

The estimated cost has risen from €3.2 billion (US$3.6b) to €8.5 billion (US$9.5b). Areva has already made provision for a €2.7 billion (US$3.0b) writedown on the project, with further losses expected. FTVO and Areva / Siemens are locked ina €10 billion legal battle over the cost overruns.

Finland’s government had given TVO a deadline of 30th June to request a building permit for its planned Olkiluoto 4 plant. TVO said it would not pursue the project due to "the delay of the start-up of Olkiluoto 3 plant unit."

It added: "In this situation it is impossible to make significant Olkiluoto 4 related decisions necessary for the construction license application."

 

Full story here.

from → Climate Change
4 Comments
  1. A C Osborn permalink
    July 30, 2015 2:47 pm

    Let’s hope that that is enough to get the UK to Cancel Hinkley Point in favour of something much more sensible.

  2. Johnson permalink
    July 30, 2015 7:41 pm

    Reblogged this on Johnsono ne'Blog'as.

  3. oldbrew permalink
    July 31, 2015 8:51 am

    We could have something like this to look forward to if the UK order goes ahead.

    ‘The parties are looking to the International Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm to settle the question of who should pay for cost overruns. The Areva-Siemens consortium is claiming €3.5 billion against TVO in relation to the delay and cost overruns of the project. The claim includes around €70 million of payments delayed by TVO under the construction contract, some €700 million of penalty interest and €120 million of alleged loss of profit. TVO has counterclaimed costs and losses of €2.3 billion to the end of 2018, having revised its loss figure from €1.8 billion to the end of 2014.’

    http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries-A-F/Finland/

Comments are closed.