Europe’s largest nuclear reactor has been launched in Finland

Europe’s largest nuclear reactor was put into operation in Finland on Sunday night. It became the third power unit of the nuclear power plant on Olikluoto Island.

The power of the reactor is 1600 gigawatts. It will cover 14 percent of the country’s energy consumption. With its commissioning, the Olkiluoto NPP will produce 30 percent of all Finnish electricity. Finnish energy experts hope that this will lead to a decrease in electricity prices and a decrease in the import of electricity from neighboring countries – Norway and Sweden. The reactor will produce 12 terawatt-hours of electricity per hour. This is enough, for example, to heat 5.2 million apartments.

Construction of the reactor began in 2005. Initially, its launch was planned for 2009, but it was postponed many times due to technical difficulties.

The start-up of the reactor will also fully cover the deficit caused by the stoppage of electricity imports to Finland from Russia. In May 2022, the Russian state-owned company “Inter RAO” stopped supplying electricity to Finland, because due to the sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union after its invasion of Ukraine, Finland no longer paid for imports.

• The issue of nuclear energy remains a controversial issue in Europe. On Saturday, April 15, Germany closed the last nuclear power plant operating in the country. Other European countries – for example, Sweden, France and Great Britain – on the contrary, are planning new developments in this area.