...reactor building. Among civil elements taking shape are the huge 50-cu-m-per-second intakes for cooling seawater, to be discharged through a tunnel terminating 700 m off the beach. Bouygues Construction S.A., Paris, is handling civil work under a $400-million contract. Areva is supplying the nuclear island, and Alstom S.A., Paris, is responsible for the generating equipment.

Construction started in summer 2006 with some 600,000 cu m of excavation. Concrete began being poured in the nuclear island in December 2007, and civil work is due for completion in mid-2011.

However, difficulties in installing the thin, gas-tight steel liner in the reactor building has cost delays of two to three months, says an EDF spokesman. The current budget of $5.3 billion is up $930 million from the original, largely because of inflation, he adds.

Flamanville’s reactor vessel is due to arrive from Japan early next year and the plant is scheduled for completion in summer 2012. If that happens, Flamanville 3 will be running neck and neck with OL3, despite the Finnish plant’s start of site work a year earlier.

At OL3, civil construction by Bouygues is around 70% complete and will reach 95% this year, forecasts Oursel. Areva and Alstom in a joint venture have a fixed-price turnkey contract for the plant with electric utility Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO), Helsinki.

“We have manufactured the major components of the primary circuit,” adds Oursel. The 526-tonne reactor pressure vessel arrived from Japan this January.

Originally due for completion this year, Areva-Siemens expects to hand over the plant to TVO before summer 2012, say utility officials. TVO has lodged a claim for compensation for increased costs against the joint venture and rejected counter claims from the contractor.

Last December the joint venture launched arbitration proceedings at the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris, citing time taken by TVO to approve documentation. On average it takes 12 months, three times longer than at Flamanville, claims Oursel. “We have everlasting iterations...which are highly disturbing the process,” he says.

TVO President Jarmo Tanhua rebuts the claim, asserting tardiness by the contractor in supplying documents. However the arbitration turns out, OL3 has opened a new door for EPR and, as Oursel says, “allowed us to reactivate our supply chain.”