Here’s a video from Jarret Adams’ recent visit to the Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) construction site in Finland. This is where AREVA is building its EPR™ reactor- it’s a pressurized water reactor that will produce approximately 1,600 megawatts of electricity per year. Right now AREVA is the only company in the world with a Generation III+ reactor under construction.

As you can see in the footage, construction is moving right along for this first-of-a-kind project with nearly 3,500 people working to complete the OL3 EPR™.

Construction at Olkiluoto

by Jarret Adams

Hidden among the tall firs of western Finland, the Olkiluoto 3 project remains hidden from view until we arrived at the site. In fact, the first full view was quite arresting—it is an enormous project and in the bright summer Scandinavian sun quite beautiful.

My visit to the Olkiluoto site last week was as the host of Amory Lovins, chairman and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. More about that aspect of the visit is below.

The basics of the OL3 project are well-known to the readers of this blog. AREVA and Siemens have partnered to build the first world’s Generation III+ reactor for Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO). It also will be AREVA’s first EPR™ reactor built to produce 1,650 Megawatts, enough CO2-free electricity to power one and a half million Finnish households.

The Finns are a pragmatic people. They choose to build a fifth reactor because in Finland there is not much sun for most of the year, neither is there much wind, geothermal or fossil fuels. They also do not want to rely on Russia for natural gas. Given Finland’s history with Russia, this is understandable. They also want abundant, reliable electricity with a minimal environmental impact. So, they decided to with nuclear energy. And even with all that you may have read about this project, Finland has decided that would like to build another—Ollikuoto 4.

The 4,000 workers at the site have been making excellent progress. They have completed construction of the main control room. In the coming weeks, they will bring in the polar crane that will place items in the massive containment building. By the end of the summer, they plan to lift the dome on the top of the containment, which will mark a major step forward.

Today the civil works at OL3 are approximately 70-75 percent complete and they expect to reach 95 percent by the end of this year. At this point, the work will focus more on installation of components rather than pouring concrete.

Our tour was quite comprehensive—we climbed down into the guts to see the location of the unique core-catcher as well as that of the major components. We then climbed back up to stand inside the containment building to see the liner now complete to the rim of the giant structure. Then we climbed back down under the double wall, each is 1.8 meters at the base, and emerged through the location of the used fuel pool.

We visited the massive reactor vessel, perched in its own shed next to the containment building. Two of the steam generators are complete and waiting at AREVA’s Chalon-St. Marcel plant in France. The other two are being manufactured there as are the reactor’s other major components.

In the turbine building, work is moving along at a clip. The building itself is largely complete and the turbine itself in place. During our visit, workers were welding the cover on the massive Siemens turbine. Our guide from Siemens opined that he believes that producing 1,700 MW here is a good possibility.

Amory and Me at OL3

As readers of this blog have read before, one of AREVA’s guiding principles is to maintain a policy of openness with all of our stakeholders. We are open and forthright about our business and our projects. This is a policy embraced by everyone from our senior management to the rest of our staff. Recently, our CEO Anne Lauvergeon invited Mr. Lovins, a noted critic of the nuclear energy industry, to visit the OL3 project and see it for himself.

So we opened our doors to Mr. Lovins, his wife and mother-in-law (both lovely ladies) and spent a day doing an in-depth tour of the site. The conversations we had were always lively, and we hope that he was impressed with the project. We do not presume this visit will change his 30-year opposition to nuclear energy, but we remain committed to a frank and open exchange of ideas with our stakeholders and to some degree let the work speak for itself.

Mr. Lovins’ visit to OL3 is but one of many visits to our various sites we have done and are doing with folks who are supportive and critical of the nuclear industry. Recently, Ed Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) paid a visit to OL3*. This week, we will host Tom Cochran of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) at our La Hague and MELOX recycling facilities in France. In the end, we believe that this openness is a key to the ongoing success of AREVA and the nuclear energy industry in general.

* We erroneously published earlier that Ed Lyman of UCS had visited OL3. We apologize for the mistake.

Good to see nuclear energy bloggers being recognized at the Wall Street Journal for their blog posts on the state of the industry:

Are Finland’s nuclear woes a cautionary tale for the rest of the industry? Don’t bet on it, say Rod Adams and Dan Yurman.

AREVA EPR reactor under construction in Finland

by Jarret Adams

Today’s New York Times contains an article that presents a clearly unbalanced report of the progress of the AREVA EPR™ reactor under construction at Olkiluoto, Finland. The article includes several inaccuracies and mischaracterizations all in the pursuit of the writer’s foregone conclusion, albeit posed as a question, “Is the Nuclear ‘Renaissance’ Fizzling?” Such is the title of the blog post accompanying the article. The print version bears the title, “Not So Fast, Nukes,” and the online version, “In Finland, Nuclear Renaissance Runs Into Trouble.” Given these titles, one would not expect a charitable account of the nuclear revival now under way.

Well, from our perspective, the nuclear renaissance is going just fine, thank you.

Despite a global recession, AREVA increased sales in 2008 by more than 10 percent and grew its order backlog by more than 20 percent. We continue to negotiate new deals for EPR™ reactors and other AREVA products and services with customers around the globe.

We recognize that as with any first-of-a-kind project, there is bound to be a learning curve. We are learning much from the EPR™ reactor under construction in Finland and will apply this experience to future projects around the world. At our second EPR™ project in France, we’ve already implemented many of the improvements we’ve learned from the Finland project.

Before construction begins in earnest on the first EPR™ reactors in the United States, AREVA will have completed several others internationally. The success of the Olkiluoto project will not be measured on timetables alone but also on the quality of the product delivered.

In fact, the growing interest in new reactors and other aspects of the nuclear energy infrastructure worldwide suggests the nuclear renaissance is picking up speed.

In North America, we are very committed to a revival of nuclear energy. We are making investments such as a heavy component manufacturing facility in Newport News, Va., and a uranium enrichment facility in Idaho. We also are hiring hundreds of engineers at locations in Lynchburg, Va., and Charlotte to develop the U.S. EPR™ technology. These U.S. EPR™ reactors will be made in America, and their construction and operation will create thousands of new jobs.

In fact, AREVA plans to hire some 12,000 new employees this year worldwide. And our competitors in the nuclear energy sector also are hiring. Today more than 30 new reactors are under consideration in the United States. This hardly paints a picture of a revival that has run “into trouble.” The nuclear energy industry is not pursuing the investments for philanthropic purposes, but because it sees legitimate business opportunities.

Finally, to a few of the mischaracterizations: the article states that AREVA “turned to” Finland for the first EPR™ reactor after having difficulty selling the reactor in France. In fact, the Finland opportunity simply presented itself first. It also states that the NRC will delay review of a license application until the design certification for the U.S. EPR™ reactor is complete. At present, review of license application is being pursued in parallel with the design certification.

In the end, one can expect more articles arguing whether a nuclear renaissance will succeed fueled by those who desperately want it not to succeed. The fact is that nuclear energy’s revival already is under way, and AREVA is at the center of it.