Finnish electric authorities have said that the country’s forthcoming Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor will not be ready in 2014 as planned.
The news came on Monday via the TVO electricity provider. The firm is already five years behind on the project, for which it has contracted Areva and Siemens for the construction and operational needs.
A statement from TVO said, “The plant unit’s installation works and plant automation system engineering under the responsibility of the supplier have not progressed according to the supplier’s schedules.”
Officials went on to say that it was not ready to provide a new schedule, as the company was waiting for partner firms on the project to, “update the overall schedule and provide a new confirmation and analysis of the completion date as well as clarification of the measures needed to keep up with the schedule”.
The news marks the most recent in a series of delays on the ‘third generation’ European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) technology project. Officials had first said that the power station was to be fully operational in November 2010; however, the date was later pushed up to December 2011 and then to the summer of 2014.
There are currently three other EPR reactors under construction – two in China and one in southern France, which has also seen several years of delays.