Loviisa nuke plant resumes production after annual outage

Both units at Loviisa nuclear power plant of the majority state-owned energy company Fortum resumed power generation after completion of their annual outages, said Fortum in a press release on Monday.

This year, both units underwent the short refuelling outage. The annual outage of Unit 2 was completed on September 7 while the outage of Unit 1 completed on Sunday.

“In conjunction with the annual outage of Unit 1, a faulty seawater pump motor was replaced, and the servicing work on Unit 2’s second turbine line continued still after the annual outage,” said Sasu Valkamo, Senior Vice President of Loviisa nuclear power plant.

During the annual outages, about a quarter of the fuel in both plant units was replaced. In addition to the normal periodic maintenance work and refuelling, tasks related to maintenance and continuous improvement were carried out on both units during the annual outages. 

“This year, a test assembly manufactured by Westinghouse was loaded into the reactor; the test assembly doesn’t contain the actual nuclear uranium pellets. We are pursuing mechanical operating experiences with the new fuel type,” said Valkamo.

Fortum and Westinghouse Electric Company signed an agreement in November 2022 for the design and supply of a new fuel type for the Loviisa power plant.

Both units of the power plant underwent the short refuelling outage on August 20.