Shortly after the shutdown of Germany’s last nuclear power plants, Europe’s largest single reactor has now started operating in Finland. This power plant can now produce approx 14 percent to supply this country with electricity and it is predicted that at least 60 years continue to operate.
The operator of the “Olkiluto” nuclear power plant announced that their reactor has entered the energy production phase and is expected to provide energy in this country for decades. The construction of this EPR type reactor from approx 18 years It was already started and now it has started working 14 years after the initial plan to launch.
Of course, this power plant was turned on on a trial basis in September last year and was supposed to enter the commercial consumption phase in December, but this operation was postponed until now. Now Finland has turned on this reactor in a situation where the last three nuclear power plants in Germany were shut down at midnight on Saturday.
What is the production capacity of Finland’s nuclear reactor?
Nuclear power plant Olquiloto 3 with production capacity 1600 MW It is the largest single nuclear reactor in Europe. But if we consider multiple reactors, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia plant ranks higher. Finland tried to use this new reactor for energy supply last winter. But the conditions were not right to do this.
Now the CEO of TVO, as the operator of this power plant, has announced that environmentally friendly electricity production with this reactor can be one of Finland’s winning cards. The EPR design used by Olkiluto 3 was developed after the Chernobyl disaster to Safety and efficiency provide better
However, many projects were built with this design and faced numerous delays in implementation. France’s state-owned energy group EDF announced late last year that it would need more time to start up the new reactor at the Flanville plant, which would likely happen in mid-2024.
TVO says the Olkiluto 3 reactor is Finland’s biggest climate action and could accelerate the move towards a carbon-free society. A survey in May 2022 in this country showed that 60 percent Finns support the use of nuclear energy.
