Teollisuuden Voima Oy has asked the Finnish government to extend its deadline for receipt of a construction licence application for the Olkiluoto 4 nuclear power plant which, if approved, would push start-up of the unit into the late 2020s.
TVO was due to apply for a construction licence for OL4 by 1 July 2015, but requested a five-year extension, citing delays to the start-up of Olkiluoto 3 which has slipped from May 2009 to beyond 2014.
"In this situation, the company considers it impossible to make significant Olkiluoto 4 related decisions necessary for the construction licence application within the current period of validity of the Decision-in-Principle," says TVO.
In an application submitted to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy on 20 May 2014, TVO proposed extending the time limit to submit the OL4 construction licence application by five years, which is equal to the validity period of the initial Decision-in-Principle granted in mid-2010.
This would see the start of electricity production from OL4 ‘during the latter half of 2020s,’ according to TVO’s chief executive officer, Jarmo Tanhua.
The OL4 project was one of two nuclear projects that won in-principle approval from the Finnish government in 2010. The other project, Fennovoima’s Hanhikivi 1, envisages construction of a Russian-designed AES-2006 reactor and remains on track for start-up in 2024.
