Teollisuuden Voima Oyj, the owner and operator of Olkiluoto NPP started the project for building a new EPR model nuclear power plant in 2005 and Fortum provided support in multiple distinct projects for TVO throughout the lifecycle of OL3 project. From 2017 onwards, the detailed preparations for the start-up of the reactor became relevant and TVO ordered expert services from Fortum for supporting tasks relating to commissioning phase.
Nuclear commissioning services can be divided into two distinct parts:
- Consulting services for TVO before the actual commissioning: Fortum worked as a third party between the Plant Supplier and TVO in reviewing the core commissioning plans and procedures. Moreover, Fortum’s experts performed calculations of key safety parameters and simulated core commissioning tests with TVO’s codes in order to verify TVO’s models and to compare the results with Plant Supplier’s.
- Expert services during commissioning: In multiple subprojects, Fortum supported TVO’s organization with our own experts. For example, Fortum’s physicists worked as a part of TVO’s team during core commissioning while Fortum’s process engineers supported TVO with running the commissioning tests of the primary circuit.
During 2017-2022 Fortum reviewed Supplier’s core commissioning plans and procedures, run independent analyses on the core behavior during the commissioning tests, calculated key safety parameters, and worked with process analyses and modelling of the plant. In addition to the preparatory work, Fortum’s reactor physicists provided hands-on support to TVO during the actual commissioning of the reactor core, and Fortum’s experts were there when the first criticality was reached.
In addition to core commissioning expertise, Fortum also supported the testing and commissioning of different process systems in the power plant. For example, the commissioning tests for primary circuit of the power plant were completed with support of Fortum and got an official approval from the regulatory body.
