Finnish reactor back online after forced shutdowns

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:52am EST

HELSINKI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Finnish utility TVO said on Sunday it had restarted the Olkiluoto 2 nuclear reactor after two separate malfunctions forced shutdowns over the weekend.

The 840-megawatt reactor was reconnected to the power grid at about 12.30 p.m. local time (1030 GMT), 15 hours after it was stopped due to a valve malfunction in the generator's cooling system.

The same reactor was stopped for about 12 hours early on Saturday due to a pump malfunction, and had been restarted only hours before the second malfunction.

"It has been restarted and is running at about 80 percent capacity," Olkiluoto operations head Reijo Sundell told Reuters, adding the security systems functioned as planned.

Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) is owned by Finnish utility Fortum and Pohjolan Voima, a consortium of Finnish forestry and energy firms.
(Reporting by Sakari Suoninen; editing by Sue Thomas)

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