The Finnish Nuclear Safety Authority STUK has issued its decision concerning OL3 I&C architecture

​The I&C architecture specifies the principles according to which the I&C systems are designed and also describes how the different I&C systems need to fulfil essential safety principles, such as independence between systems. The OL3 power plant unit will have digital I&C systems with a separate backup system.

According to the OL3 Project Director, Mr. Jouni Silvennoinen, the I&C architecture decision is an important step in the I&C licensing process.

– The I&C system design works have progressed and testing of some I&C systems has commenced in parallel with STUK's review of the I&C architecture.

– The demonstration of the independence between the different I&C systems, such as between safety systems and operation systems for example, has taken the plant supplier long to achieve. The plant supplier still needs to complement the I&C failure analysis to confirm that all possible I&C failure situations are analysed, Silvennoinen explains.

– Despite this I&C architecture decision from STUK and the recent progress in respect of the reactor building containment pressure test and the start of I&C system tests in Erlangen, we are not satisfied with the plant supplier's overall performance in the project. We have requested that the plant supplier presents an explicit plan for the remaining work, and have called for an updated overall schedule for the completion of the plant unit, but the plant supplier has not yet provided these. In addition, main installation works at the Olkiluoto site are currently not progressing as the supplier has not completed the engineering. TVO provides its full support, but the plant supplier needs to increase its efficiency and complete the remaining works without delay, Mr. Silvennoinen states.

TVO informed in February 2014 that it had not received the updated overall schedule for Olkiluoto 3 project from the plant supplier AREVA-Siemens Consortium. TVO therefore does not provide an estimate of the start-up time of OL3 nuclear power plant unit at the moment. The plant supplier Consortium who is building the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant unit under a fixed price turnkey contract is responsible for the time schedule.

For further information, please contact:

Jouni Silvennoinen, OL3 Project Director, tel. +358 (0) 2 8381 4100.