Europe’s Biggest Reactor Caps 14-Year Delay to Begin Commercial Output
- Olkiluoto-3 in Finland ended a testing phase on Sunday
- The plant was plagued by licensing and construction snags
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Europe’s largest nuclear reactor has begun regular electricity production 14 years later than planned, delivering a boost to the region’s energy independence.
The 1,600-megawatt plant sitting on a rocky island that juts into the Baltic Sea on Finland’s west coast entered regular operation in the early hours of Sunday. Olkiluoto-3 is the first new atomic reactor in the Nordic countries since the mid-1980s, and the first in its home nation in more than four decades. About 30% of Finland’s electricity will now be produced on Olkiluoto.