Test operation of the EPR reactor at unit 3 of Finland’s Olkiluoto NPP is scheduled for next year without uranium fuel, but with temperatures and pressures raised to production levels, operator Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) said on 13 September. The company also said it is expecting to begin cleaning the reactor primary circuit “in the near future” – an important preparation for allowing the cool functional tests to go ahead in spring 2017. An Areva-Siemens consortium is building the 1,600MWe unit for TVO, but the project has been hit by a number of delays and disputes. TVO has said Olkiluoto-3 is expected to begin commercial operation in 2018, putting it nine years behind schedule. The Areva-Siemens consortium and TVO 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 €3.5bn ($3.9bn) against TVO which includes around €70m of payments delayed by TVO under the construction contract, some €700m of penalty interest and €120m of alleged loss of profit. TVO has counter-claimed costs and losses of €2.3bn to the end of 2018.
