FORTUM CORPORATION PRESS RELEASE 25 October 2018
Both units at Fortum’s Loviisa nuclear power plant are back in production after their annual outages. The annual outage of Unit 2 lasted nearly 47 days, until 21 September 2018, and the maintenance outage of Unit 1 lasted just over 26 days, until 18 October. All scheduled work at Unit 2 was completed on time.
The Industrial Union's overtime ban targeted several external workers participating in the annual outage work, so the outage work on Unit 1 had to be rescheduled, lengthening the duration of the outage. The experiences gained and lessons learned from Unit 2’s annual outage, performed first, were put to good use with Unit 1, making it possible to complete the demanding annual outage work on Unit 1 on schedule under the new operating plan.
This year the most challenging outage work in the Loviisa power plant's history were successfully implemented, both in terms of workload and how demanding the work was. Unit 2 underwent the extensive annual outage that involved the plant modification and improvement work, as well as the standard periodic inspections performed every eight years. Unit 1 underwent the short refuelling outage. In conjunction with the annual outages, about one quarter of the fuel in both units was replaced.
In addition to the normal periodic maintenance tasks and refuelling, several safety improvements were implemented and completed during the annual outages, including the automation modernisation to improve the plant’s critical safety functions and ensuring the safety functions of the secondary circuit. Along with the maintenance work on the main generators, the stators of two generators were replaced. In addition to the normal preventive maintenance work, the turbine work included modernisation of the high-pressure turbine and inspections.
"The Loviisa power plant's automation renewal project culminated in this year's annual outages. Now the installation work for the automation renewal was finalised, and the new safety systems supplied by Rolls-Royce were commissioned," says Thomas Buddas, Deputy Director, Loviisa power plant.
"The automation system modernisations and modifications we have now implemented and the new safety functions will improve the safety of the Loviisa power plant and will ensure the reliability of systems also in the future," Buddas continues.
The persistent work to lower radiation levels during annual outage periods has generated good results. Thanks to the continuous development, the collective radiation doses for personnel during the entire annual outage period were the lowest in the plant’s history compared to similar types of annual outages.
”During annual outages, the number of employees and the amount of tasks to be done is amplified in comparison with normal operations, so we put a lot of effort into workplace tidiness and orderliness and good work practices. We are proud of our competent personnel and collaboration partners who contributed to the completion of also this year’s annual outages with no injury related loss of workdays," Buddas sums up.
In additional to the 500 Fortum employees, a total of some one thousand external employees participated in the Loviisa power plant’s annual outage that started in August. About 80 per cent of the workers were Finns.
Fortum Corporation
Group Communications
Further information:
Thomas Buddas, Deputy Director, Loviisa power plant, tel. +358 10 455 3710
Loviisa power plant
In 2017, the load factor at Fortum’s fully-owned Loviisa nuclear power plant was 92.9%. On an international scale, the load factor was among the best in the world for pressurised water reactor power plants. The plant produced a total of 8.16 terawatt hours, which is more than 10% of Finland’s total electricity production. The Loviisa power plant employs more than 500 Fortum employees and some 100 permanent contractors. In 2017, Fortum invested about EUR 90 million into the Loviisa nuclear power plant.