Europe’s largest nuclear reactor, Finland’s Olkiluoto 3, was shut down automatically due to a technical problem. However, it is expected to resume its work on November 21 after repairs, AFP reported.
A TVO statement said the Olkiluoto 3 unit was in normal production mode when a fault in the turbine plant automatically shut down power generation at the facility. At the time of the failure, the facility was operating as intended.
“The cause of the failure was determined to be a malfunctioning temperature measurement in the generator’s cooling system. The incident had no impact on nuclear safety,” the statement said.
Europe’s Next Generation Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) was built by the French-led Areva-Siemens consortium. It produces about 14% of Finland’s electricity and was put into regular operation in April 2023 – some 18 years after construction began and 14 years after it was originally planned to go into commercial production.
With a production capacity of 1,600 megawatts, Olkiluoto 3 is the largest nuclear reactor in Europe.
A unit of the Romanian nuclear power plant also stopped working days ago.
On the evening of November 18, the first unit of the Cherna Voda nuclear power plant was automatically disconnected from the national grid as a result of unfavorable weather phenomena, reports BTA.
The Ministry of Energy in Romania specifies that all procedures were carried out under normal technical parameters and on the evening of November 19, the first unit of the nuclear power plant was reconnected to the national energy system, resuming the supply of electricity to over 80% of customers, with which were interrupted due to bad weather.
Romanian Energy Minister Sebastian Burduža thanked the teams for their quick intervention over the weekend when south-eastern Romania was hit by gale-force winds of over 100 km/h.
Romania’s only nuclear power plant produces about a fifth of the country’s electricity with two Canadian-made CANDU reactors that were commissioned in 1996 and 2007 respectively. The country recently took steps to build two more units at the plant.
