It is the most powerful nuclear reactor in Europe (1,650 megawatts of installed power) and one of the most expensive in the history of nuclear energy. It has accumulated 20 years of projects, 18 years of works (13 years behind schedule) and a final cost estimated at 11,000 million euros (the initial budget was 3,000 million euros).
Finally, however, on Sunday April 16, the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor, the third reactor of the plant of the same name (on the southwest coast of Finland), began to supply electricity to the general grid.
It was scheduled to start generating electricity before winter, due to fears of energy shortages in the context of the war in Ukraine, but the production start date was delayed several times during the testing phase that began in September.
Finland was the first country in the European Union (EU) to increase its atomic power generation capacity after the Chernobyl nuclear accident (Ukraine), in order to reduce its energy dependence on Russia and cut carbon dioxide emissions ( CO2).
The Nordic country plans to finish the construction of Onkalo within two years, the first deep geological repository in the world to permanently deposit its radioactive waste.
Olkiluoto 3 has been built by the French group Areva and the German Siemens, it uses state-of-the-art EPR pressurized water technology. This technology, considered more powerful and safer, was conceived to relaunch nuclear energy in Europe after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Olkiluoto is the third reactor of this EPR model in the world, after two already operating in China.
The construction of this new Finnish reactor began in 2005 but the project accumulated setbacks and the works ended with a final cost higher than initially announced (13 years according to the most optimistic estimate). Despite everything, support for civilian nuclear power has grown in Finland in recent years, fueled by climate concerns and global energy tensions. According to a survey published in May, 60% of Finns support the use of this energy technology.
Olkiluoto 3 began generating electricity a few hours after the last three nuclear reactors remaining in operation in Germany were disconnected from the grid, with which this country finally consummated the abandonment of nuclear energy agreed in 2011.
