A new round of testing has begun at the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear build in Finland, the French engineering and construction firm AREVA has announced.
The company said that process systems tests began last week. It is the second critical milestone for the project thus far in 2016, AREVA said.
The first system to be tested is the seawater system, which provides cooling for various plant safety systems. The operation “paves the way for the overall systems testing” to be conducted at the plant.
AREVA said the main electromechanical systems will be in place by the end of the second quarter of 2016. This includes the piping works. “This is one of the prerequisites for another project milestone, the reactor primary circuit cleaning,” which is expected by the end of the year.
Testing of instrumentation and control systems, the first important milestone of the year, began at the site in January. Finish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyi has set it sites on an operational start by 2018, roughly 12 years after the Olkiluoto 3 construction start in 2005.
In January, TVO predicted that the operating license application would be submitted in April to the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy.