Nuclear dawn delayed in Finland

When it is finished, Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor will be the biggest the world has ever seen, the excavation site alone is the size of 55 football fields.

But hopes of an early nuclear dawn on the Baltic coast are fading – the May start up date came and went and the OL3 is now not expected to begin pumping out electricity until 2012 – three years later than planned and about $2.4bn dollars (1.7bn euros) over budget.

The soaring cranes tell the tale: this project is far from complete.

…For his part, Jarmo Tanhua, chief executive of Finnish utility TVO, the ultimate end customer of the plant, admits to being disappointed.

“A lot has been going wrong,” says Ariane Sains of Platts Nuclear Publications.

“They have had many problems with subcontractors who simply have not understood the very strict requirements for delivering to a nuclear project.”

Even Philippe Knoche, Areva’s chief operating officer, admits things have not been going well.

“It’s no secret that Areva is losing money on this project,” he tells me.

BBC