At the end of this project located in southwest Finland, which has become a fiasco undermined by delays and financial drifts, the plant operator now expects first electricity production at the end of January and regular production in June. .

"The nuclear reaction in the OL3 reactor will be triggered for the first time in December," Finnish electricity producer TVO announced.

The nuclear safety authority (Stuk) granted "the authorization to proceed with the divergence and to carry out tests at low power", he specified.

The Finnish EPR, whose work began in 2005 and was initially due to be completed in 2009, arrives in the home stretch.

Areva welcomed Thursday "the completion of this key stage".

In March, the Stuk had already given its authorization for the loading of nuclear fuel into the reactor, then synonymous with the next first "hot" tests.

"We are now moving step by step, prioritizing safety, towards the moment that we have been waiting for a long time," said Marjo Mustonen, one of the heads of electricity production at TVO.

The tests carried out recently "show that the reactor is working as planned", underlines the group.

Step-by-step start

Initially entrusted to a consortium between Areva and the German Siemens, construction of the Finnish EPR began in 2005.

It was the first reactor of this type to be built and the symbol of what at the time was to be a "rebirth" of the civilian atom, which has since largely gone unheeded.

EPRs around the world Vincent LEFAI AFP

But the site has accumulated significant delays and additional costs which spanned more than a decade, creating strong tensions between TVO and Areva.

Lately, the schedule has been affected by technical problems but also by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The start-up of OL3, authorized at low power, will be carried out in stages, still subject to authorizations from the regulator to go to 5%, then 30%, then 60% of the capacity of 1,650 megawatts of the reactor.

The last commissioning of a reactor in Finland, which has four reactors active for about 30% of its total electricity production, dates back to 1980.

Olkiluoto-3, which joins a power plant with two reactors in operation, is the first site of a nuclear reactor to be ordered in Europe after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

Only two EPR reactors have so far entered into operation in the world, those of the Taishan power plant in China.

France, for its part, is building a copy in Flamanville (Manche), which has experienced many delays and additional costs.

But President Emmanuel Macron recently announced that the country would launch a new nuclear program, without however specifying the number of copies at this stage.

Two other copies are under construction in England.

© 2021 AFP