Outage of OL3 nuke plant to extend by 5 days

The outage of Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear power plant unit will be extended by five days and will end on April 20, said the owner of the plant Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) in a press release on Thursday.

The fuel checks of the plant unit will require more time than planned resulting delay in resumption of the power generation at the unit.

Previously, TVO reported on the cooling of the components slower than expected and some technical problems that caused a one-week extension to the annual maintenance.

“Now the five-day additional time is needed especially for extra fuel checks. When the fuel is transferred back to the reactor at the end of the annual outage, we want to ensure their cleanliness so that no loose parts get into the process,” said TVO in the press release.

The annual outage of OL3 started on March 2 and the work has otherwise progressed well.

About 1,100 external professionals are involved in the outage.