Planned 2009 Maintenance Outages at Finland's Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The 1,020-megawatt (MW) Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant, owned by Fortum Oyj (Espoo, Finland) (HEL:FUM1V), will undergo a maintenance outage on the plant's two units this fall. Each year, the 510-MW generating units are shut down for maintenance, which takes between 16 to 40 days depending on the cycle.

During this outage, approximately one-third of the nuclear fuel will be replaced and the necessary inspection, maintenance and alteration works will be performed. According to plant authorities, the outage will start in August and will last for 20 days per unit. In order to accomplish the work, the number of personnel at the plant will be increased considerably. In addition to Loviisa's own personnel, approximately 700 professionals will be contracted from different companies to perform the works.

Every four years, there is a longer inspection outage, where the turbine is opened and improvements are performed. For Unit 1, the last extensive outage was done in 2008, and the next major outage is expected to occur in 2012. Unit 2 is scheduled to have a major overhaul next year.

The Loviisa Nuclear Power Station is located close to the city of Loviisa and is equipped with two pressurized water reactors with a capacity of 510 MW each and manufactured by Atomenergoeksport. The facility started operations in 1977.

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