Fuel loading began March 27 at Finland's Olkiluoto-3 nuclear power reactor, licensee and plant operator Teollisuuden Voima Oy said in a statement that day. Fuel loading will take about a week, TVO said. The 1,600-MW EPR is being built for TVO by Areva and Siemens. The project has been repeatedly delayed and is about 12 years behind its original schedule and three times over its original Eur 3.2 billion ($3.8 billion) budget. Framatome has supplied 241 fuel assemblies containing 128 metric tons of uranium to be loaded into the unit. Testing will be conducted for several months after fuel loading, TVO said. TVO did not say when it plans to start the reactor. Olkiluoto-3 is scheduled to begin commercial operation in February, the company said. Until then, the unit is expected to generation 1 to 3 TWh at varying power levels, TVO said.
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