Helsinki — The latest report from Finland is that construction of its first ever EPR nuclear reactor is again delayed; no surprise there.
Areva, a French nuclear company is building the Finnish EPR (European Pressurized Reactor). Areva has bid to building reactors in Ontario. Its track record in Finland and at home in France is in keeping with the cost-overrun history of nuke building in Ontario.
The last time construction delays in Finland were noted was in June, 2010. Finnish investor TVO said construction would not be completed before the end of 2012, delaying electricity production until the second half of 2013. The plant was supposed to start producing electricity in the first half of 2009. At the same time, Areva announced a write down of 367 million euros. So the total cost overrun so far balloons to to 2.6 billion euros.on top of a contracted price of three billion euros.
The original contracted price for the Finnish EPR was three billion euros, so the project is now close to double the original estimate. And no doubt still climbing.
Areva recently doubled its claim for economic damages from the Finnish project from one billion to 1.9 billion euros. Areva is also having cost problems at home. On July 20th, it was revealed that the Flamanville EPR in France is ridden by similar cost problems.
The EPR, a so-called “third generation” of nuclear reactors, is proving to be a complete failure. The designs are complex and unfinished.
There are new, unresolved design issues with the computerized control systems of the reactor, missing accident and risk analyses, problems with backup diesels, emergency cooling systems, electric cabling, radioactivity-containing pools, nuclear fuel handling crane and reactor building support structures.
Suppliers are cutting corners. All this is a recipe for producing risky and dangerous reactors.
These kind delays and extra costs can wreck the energy policy of a country, or a province, which thinks nuclear power is the way to go.
Advice to the Finnish and French governments: cancel the failed EPR nuclear projects and commit to sustainable and renewable sources of energy.
That would line these two governments up with the rest or Europe. Renewable energy provides most of new electricity generation capacity in Europe as a whole. Finland and France are still making little progress on wind power and other modern renewable energies.
A Greenpeace briefing provides more detail on the Finnish EPR problems:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/New-Problems-in-Olkiluoto/
More on why Ontario needs to rethink nuclear: http://bit.ly/e6WLv2