Olkiluoto in Finland has the eyes of the world on it. That’s where French nuclear corporation AREVA is building the world’s first European Pressurised Reactor (EPR). With its state of the art third generation design, the EPR is the reactor that is going to kick off the nuclear ‘renaissance’ in style, with countries around the world queuing up to buy the design. Apparently.

AREVA took careful steps to make sure they marketed their ground-breaking technology properly. The OL3 EPR reactor at Olkiluoto is three years late and 2.75 billion euros over budget. The project has been inundated with thousands of construction defects and safety concerns, and has single-handedly hammered AREVA’s profits. How’s that for salesmanship? What was heralded as the poster child of the nuclear ‘renaissance’ has turned out to be its enfant terrible.

To make matters worse AREVA are engaged in a rather undignified public squabble with TVO, the Finnish utility that commisioned the reactor. TVO say it’s AREVA’s fault the reactor’s late. No, say AREVA, it’s TVO’s fault and TVO owe us money. No, say TVO, AREVA owes us money. NO! say AREVA. NO! say TVO. YOU! say AREVA. YOU! say TVO.

We’ve seen playground fights show more diplomacy. Just how this is going down with other countries thinking about using AREVA’s reactor building services is anyone’s guess. TVO have announced this week that OL3 will be complete in the second half of 2012. Going on past experience, you’d be a fool to bet money on that date staying fixed.

The use of the word ‘complete’ is also interesting in this context. It’s possible the reactor will be completely built in the second half of 2012 but that’s different to it actually producing electricity on a commercial basis. That could take months and even longer. The saga of Olkiluoto has a long way to go yet.