The Olkiluoto-3 nuclear power plant in Finland returned to electricity production on 16 May after a first annual service outage that lasted twice as long as originally planned.
Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), owner and operator of the 1,575-MW EPR unit, said the plant was synchronised to the national grid and was “technically ready for a power increase”.
The outage was scheduled to take 37 days, but lasted for 74 days and 9 hours. TVO said delays were due to the shutdown process and preparations for refuelling taking longer than expected, and because of technical problems identified during maintenance activities.
TVO also detected indications of a risk of foreign material in the fuel elements during the outage, which meant inspections of the elements were took significantly longer than expected.